ASA  (MIAMI 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

IN  MEMORY  OF 

CARROLL  ALCOTT 

PRESENTED  BY 

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LIBRARY  FUND  COMMITTEE 


AS   A   CHINAMAN   SAW   US 


A   CHINESE   BOOK   COVER   DECORATION 

Made  when  the  Anglo-Saxon  people  were 
living  in  caves 


;<-; 

,  "  |.;j./.  J>  fi.f-Jjn,)      , 

AS   A   CHINAMAN 
SAW   US 


PASSAGES    FROiM    HIS   LETTERS 
TO   A   FRIEND    AT    HOME 


NEW   YORK 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 
1904 


.I   i:. 

Wiww 


COPYRIGHT,  1904,  BY 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


Published  June, 


PREFACE 


SINCE  the  publication  in  1832  of  that 
classic  of  cynicism,  The  Domestic  Man- 
ners of  the  Americans,  by  Mrs.  Trol- 
lope,  perhaps  nothing  has  appeared  that 
is  more  caustic  or  amusing  in  its  treat- 
ment of  America  and  the  Americans 
than  the  following  passages  from  the  let- 
ters of  a  cultivated  and  educated  China- 
man. The  selections  have  been  made 
from  a  series  of  letters  covering  a  decade 
spent  in  America,  and  were  addressed  to 
a  friend  in  China  who  had  seen  few  for- 
eigners. The  writer  was  graduated  from 
a  well-known  college,  after  he  had  at- 
tended an  English  school,  and  later  took 
special  studies  at  a  German  university. 
Americans  have  been  informed  of  the  im- 

v 

1429071 


PREFACE 


pressions  they  make  on  the  French,  Eng- 
lish, and  other  people,  but  doubtless  this 
is  the  first  unreserved  and  weighty  ex- 
pression of  opinion  on  a  multiplicity  of 
American  topics  by  a  Chinaman  of  cul- 
tivation and  grasp  of  mind. 

It  will  be  difficult  for  the  average 
American  to  conceive  it  possible  that  a 
cultivated  Chinaman,  of  all  persons, 
should  have  been  honestly  amused  at  our 
civilization ;  that  he  should  have  consid- 
ered what  Mrs.  Trollope  called  "our 
great  experiment"  in  republics  a  failure, 
and  our  institutions,  fashions,  literary 
methods,  customs  and  manners,  sports 
and  pastimes  as  legitimate  fields  for  wit 
and  unrepressed  jollity.  Yet  in  the  un- 
bosoming of  this  cultivated  "heathen" 
we  see  our  fads  and  foibles  held  up  as 
strange  gods,  and  must  confess  some  of 
them  to  be  grotesque  when  seen  in  this 
yellow  light, 
vi 


PREFACE 


It  is  doubtless  true  that  the  masses  of 
Americans  do  not  take  the  Chinaman  se- 
riously, and  an  interesting  feature  of  this 
correspondence  is  the  attitude  of  the 
Chinaman  on  this  very  point  and  his 
clever  satire  on  our  assumption  of  per- 
fection and  superiority  over  a  nation,  the 
habits  of  which  have  been  fixed  and  set- 
tled for  many  centuries.  The  writer's 
experiences  in  society,  his  acquaintance 
with  American  women  of  fashion  and 
their  husbands,  all  ingeniously  set  forth, 
have  the  hall-mark  of  actual  novelty, 
while  his  loyalty  to  the  traditions  of  his 
country  and  his  egotism,  even  after  the 
Americanizing  process  had  exercised  its 
influence  over  him  for  years,  add  to  the 
interest  of  the  recital. 

In  revising  the  correspondence  and  re- 
arranging it  under  general  heads,  the 
editor  has  preserved  the  salient  features 
of  it,  with  but  little  essential  change  and 

vii 


PREFACE 


practically  in  its  original  shape.  If  the 
reader  misses  the  peculiar  idioms,  or  the 
pigeon-English  that  is  usually  placed  in 
the  mouth  of  the  Chinaman  of  the  novel 
or  story,  he  or  she  should  remember  that 
the  writer  of  the  letters,  while  a  "heathen 
Chinee,"  was  an  educated  gentleman  in 
the  American  sense  of  the  term.  This 
fact  should  always  be  kept  in  mind  be- 
cause, as  the  author  remarks,  to  many 
Americans  whom  he  met,  it  was  "incom- 
prehensible that  a  Chinaman  can  be  edu- 
cated, refined,  and  cultivated  according 
to  their  own  standards." 

With  pardonable  pride  he  tells  how, 
on  one  occasion,  when  a  woman  in  New 
York  told  him  she  knew  her  ancestral 
line  as  far  back  as  1200  A.  D.,  he  replied 
that  he  himself  had  "a  tree  without  a 
break  for  thirty-two  hundred  years."  He 
was  sure  she  did  not  believe  him,  but  he 
found  her  "indeed!"  delightful.  The  au- 
viii 


PREFACE 


thor's  name  has  been  withheld  for  per- 
sonal reasons  that  will  be  sufficiently 
obvious  to  those  who  read  the  letters. 
The  period  during  which  he  wrote  them 
is  embraced  in  the  ten  years  from  1892 
to  1902. 

HENRY  PEARSON  GRATTON. 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  CALIFORNIA, 
May  loth,  1904. 


IX 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  AMERICAN,  WHO  HE  is    .        .        .              i 

II.    THE  AMERICAN  MAN 16 

III.  AMERICAN  CUSTOMS 40 

IV.  THE  AMERICAN  WOMAN 63 

V.  THE  SUPERSTITIONS  OF  THE  AMERICAN          .     92 

VI.    THE  AMERICAN  PRESS 99 

VII.     THE  AMERICAN  DOCTOR 106 

VIII.  PECULIARITIES  AND  MANNERISMS    .        .        .118 

IX.     LIFE  IN  WASHINGTON 131 

X.  THE  AMERICAN  IN  LITERATURE      .        .        .164 

XI.  THE  POLITICAL  Boss       .        .                .        .185 

XII.  EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA          ....  200 

XIII.  THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY     .        .        .        .        .  212 

XIV.  ART  IN  AMERICA      .        .     .  :        .        .        .  229 
XV.  THE  DARK  SIDE  OF  REPUBLICANISM       .        .  237 

XVI.  SPORTS  AND  PASTIMES     ....           261 

XVII.  THE  CHINAMAN  IN  AMERICA  ....  279 

XVIII.  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  AMERICANS       .        .  303 


XI 


AS  A  CHINAMAN  SAW  US 


c 


CHAPTER    I 

THE  AMERICAN— WHO  HE  IS 

MANY  of  the  great  powers  believe 
themselves  to  be  passing  through  an  evo- 
lutionary period  leading  to  civic  and 
national  perfection.  America,  or  the 
United  States,  has  already  reached  this 
state;  it  is  complete  and  finished.  I  have 
this  from  the  Americans  themselves,  so 
there  can  be  no  question  about  it;  hence 
it  requires  no  little  temerity  to  discuss, 
let  alone  criticize,  therm) 

Yet  I  am  going  to  ask  you  to  behold 
the  American  as  he  is,  as  I  honestly 
found  him — great,  small,  good,  bad,  self- 

i 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


glorious,  egotistical,  intellectual,  super- 
cilious, ignorant,  superstitious,  vain,  and 
bombastic.  In  truth,  so  very  remarkable, 
so  contradictory,  so  incongruous  have  I 
found  the  American  that  I  hesitate. 
Shall  I  give  you  a  satire ;  shall  I  devote 
myself  to  eulogy;  shall  I  tear  what  they 
call  the  "whitewash"  aside  and  expose 
them  to  the  winds  of  excoriation;  or 
shall  I  devote  myself  to  an  introspective, 
analytical  divertissement?  But  I  do  not 
wish  to  educate  you  on  the  Americans, 
but  to  entertain,  to  make  you  laugh  by 
the  recital  of  comical  truths;  so  with- 
out system  I  am  going  to  tell  you  of  these 
Americans  as  I  found  them,  day  by  day, 
month  by  month,  officially,  socially;  in 
their  homes,  in  politics,  trade,  sorrow, 
despair,  and  in  their  pleasures. 

You  will  remember  when  the  Evil 
Spirit  is  asked  by  the  modest  Spirit  of 
Good  to  indicate  his  possessions  he  tucks 


THE    AMERICAN WHO    HE    IS 


the  earth  under  one  arm,  drops  the  sun 
into  one  pocket,  the  moon  into  another, 
and  the  stars  into  the  folds  of  his  gar- 
ment. In  a  word,  to  use  the  saying  of 
my  friends,  he  "claims  everything  in 
sight";  and  this  is  certainly  a  character- 
istic of  the  American:  he  is  all-perspec- 
tive, he  claims  to  have  all  the  virtues, 
and  in  his  ancestry  embraces  the  entire 
world.  At  a  dinner  at  the in  Wash- 
ington during  the  egg  stage  of  my  expe- 
rience I  sat  next  to  a  charming  lady;  and 
having  been  told  that  it  was  a  custom  of 
the  French  to  compliment  women,  I  re- 
marked that  her  cheeks  bloomed  like  our 
poppy  of  the  Orient.  She  laughed,  and 
responded,  "Yes,  I  get  that  from  my 
English  grandfather."  "But  your  eyes 
are  like  black  pearls,"  I  continued,  see- 
ing that  I  was  on  what  a  general  on  my 
right  called  the  "right  trail."  "I  got 
them  from  my  Italian  grandmother,"  she 

3 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


replied.  "And  your  hair?"  I  pressed. 
"Must  be  Irish,"  was  the  answer,  "for 
my  paternal  grandmother  was  Irish  and 
her  husband  Scotch."  It  is  true  that  this 
charmingly  beautiful  and  composite  god- 
dess (at  least  she  would  have  been  one 
had  she  not  been  naked  like  a  geisha  at 
a  men's  dinner)  was  the  product  of  a 
dozen  nations,  and  a  typical  American. 

The  original  Americans  appear  to 
have  been  English,  despite  the  fact  that 
the  Spaniards  discovered  the  country, 
though  a  high  official,  a  Yankee  whom 
I  met  at  a  reception,  told  me  that  this  was 
untrue.  His  ancestor  had  discovered 
North  America,  and  I  believe  he  had 
written  a  book  to  prove  it.  (En  passant, 
all  Americans  write  books;  those  who 
have  not,  fully  intend  to  write  one.)  I 
listened  complacently,  then  said,  "My 
dear ,  if  I  am  not  mistaken  the  Chi- 
nese discovered  America."  I  recalled 


THE    AMERICAN WHO    HE    IS 


the  fact  to  his  mind  that  the  northwest- 
ern Eskimos  and  the  Indians  were  essen- 
tially Asiatic  in  type;  and  it  is  true  that 
he  had  never  heard  of  the  ethnologic 
map  at  his  National  Museum,  which 
shows  the  location  of  Chinese  junks 
blown  to  American  shores  within  a  pe- 
riod of  three  hundred  years.  I  explained 
that  junks  had  been  blown  over  to  Amer- 
ica for  the  last  three  thousand  years,  and 
that  in  my  country  there  were  many 
records  of  voyages  to  the  Western  land, 
ages  before  1492. 

You  see  I  soon  began  to  be  American- 
ized and  to  claim  things.  China  discov- 
ered America  and  gave  her  the  compass 
as  well  as  gunpowder.  The  first  Amer- 
icans were  in  the  nature  of  emigrants; 
men  and  women  who  did  not  succeed 
well  in  their  own  country  and  so  sought 
new  fields,  just  as  people  are  doing  to- 
day. They  came  over  in  a  ship  called 

2  5 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


the  "Mayflower,"  and  were  remarkably 
prolific,  as  I  have  met  thousands  who 
hail  from  this  stock.  At  one  time  Eng- 
land sent  her  criminals  to  Virginia — one 
of  the  United  States — and  many  of  the 
refuse  of  the  home  country  were  sent  to 
other  parts  of  America  in  the  early  days. 
Younger  sons  of  good  families  were  also 
sent  over  for  various  reasons.  Women 
of  all  classes  were  sent  by  the  ship-load, 
and  sold  for  wives.  I  reminded  a  lady 
of  this,  who  was  lamenting  the  fact  that 
in  China  some  women  are  sold  for  wives. 
She  was  absolutely  ignorant  of  this  well- 
known  fact  in  American  history,  and  for- 
got the  selling  of  black  women.  Among 
the  men  were  many  representatives  of  old 
and  noble  families;  but  the  bulk,  I  judge 
from  their  colonial  histories,  were  peo- 
ple of  low  degree.  Very  soon  other  coun- 
tries began  to  ship  people  to  America. 
Italy,  Germany,  Russia,  Norway,  Swe- 
6 


THE    AMERICAN WHO    HE    IS 


den,  and  other  lands  were  drawn  upon 
for  constantly  increasing  numbers  as 
years  went  by.  All  tumbled  into  the 
American  hopper.  Imagine  a  coffee- 
grinder  into  which  have  been  thrown 
Greek,  Roman,  Jew,  Gentile,  and  all  the 
rest,  and  then  let  what  they  call  Uncle 
Sam — a  heroic,  paternal,  and  comical 
figure,  representing  the  government — 
turn  the  handle  and  grind  out  the  Amer- 
ican who  is  neither  Jew,  Gentile,  Greek, 
Roman,  Russe,  or  Swede,  but  a  new 
product,  sui  generis,  and  mostly  Metho- 
dist. 

This  process  has  never  ceased  for  an 
hour.  America  has  been  from  1492  to 
the  present  time,  in  the  language  of 
the  American  "press,"  the  "dumping- 
ground"  of  the  nations  of  the  world,  the 
real  open  door;  yet  this  grinding  assimi- 
lation has  gone  on.  It  is,  perhaps,  due 
to  the  climate,  perhaps  the  water,  or  the 

7 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


air;  but  the  product  of  these  people  born 
on  the  soil  is  described  by  no  other  word 
than  American.  It  may  be  Irish-Amer- 
ican, very  offensive;  Dutch- American, 
very  strenuous,  like  the  Vice-President; * 
Jewish-American,  very  commercial ;  Ital- 
ian-American, very  dirty  and  reeking 
with  garlic;  but  it  is  American,  totally 
unlike  its  progenitor,  a  something  into 
which  is  blown  a  tremendous  energy,  that 
is  very  wearisome,  a  bombast  which  is  the 
sum  of  that  of  all  nations,  and  a  conceit 

like  that  possessed  by alone.     You 

see  it  is  incurable,  also  offensive — at  least 
to  the  Oriental  mind.  Yet  I  grant  you 
the  American  is  great;  I  have  it  from 
him  and  from  her;  it  must  be  so. 

You  have  the  spectacle  here  of  the  na- 
tions of  the  world  pouring  a  stream,  that 
is  not  pactolean,  and  not  perfumed  with 

*  This  passage  was  written  just  before  the  assassination  of  President 
McKinley. 
8 


THE   AMERICAN WHO    HE    IS 


the  gums  of  Araby,  flowing  in  and  peo- 
pling the  country.  In  time  they  had 
grievances  more  fancied  than  real,  yet 
grievances.  They  rose  against  the  home 
government,  threw  off  the  English  yoke, 
and  became  a  republic  with  a  division 
into  States,  which  I  will  write  of  when 
I  tell  you  of  the  American  politician. 
This  was  the  first  trust — what  they  call 
a  merger — but  it  occurred  in  politics. 
(They  have  killed  off  a  fair  percentage 
of  the  actual  owners  of  the  soil,  the  In- 
dians, swindling  them  out  of  the  balance, 
and  driving  them  back  to  a  sort  of  ever- 
changing  dead-line.  Without  delay  they 
assumed  the  form  of  a  dominant  nation, 
and  announced  theVnselves  the  greatest 
nation  on  the  earthy 

Immigration  was  resumed,  and  all  na- 
tions again  sent  their  refuse  population 
to  America.  I  have  facts  showing  that 
for  years  English  poorhouses  and  hos- 

9 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


pitals  were  emptied  of  their  inmates  and 
shipped  to  America.  It  was  a  distinct 
policy  of  the  anti-home-rule  party  in  Ire- 
land to  encourage  the  poor  Irish  to  go  to 
America;  and  now  when  there  are  more 
Irish  in  America  than  in  Ireland  the  fate 
of  Ireland  is  assured.  Yet  the  American 
air  takes  the  fight  out  of  the  Irishman, 
the  rose  from  his  cheek,  and  makes  a 
natural-born  politician  out  of  him. 
America  still  continued  to  receive  immi- 
grants, and  not  satisfied  with  the  natural 
flow  of  the  human  current,  began  to  im- 
port African  slaves  to  a  country  founded 
for  the  benefit  of  those  who  desired  an 
asylum  where  they  could  enjoy  religious 
and  political  freedom.  The  Africans 
were  sold  in  the  cotton  belt,  their  exist- 
ence virtually  creating  two  distinct  po- 
litical parties.  America  long  remained 
a  dumping-ground  for  nearly  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  world  having  an  excess  of 
10 


THE    AMERICAN WHO    HE    IS 


population.  Great  navigation  companies 
were  built  up,  to  a  large  extent,  on  this 
trade.  They  sent  agents  to  every  foreign 
country,  issued  pamphlets  in  every  Eu- 
ropean language,  and  uncounted  thou- 
sands were  brought  over — the  scum  of 
the  earth  in  many  instances.  There  was 
no  restriction  to  immigration  until  the 
Chinese  were  barred  out.  After  accept- 
ing the  outlaws  of  every  European  state, 
the  poor  of  all  lands,  they  shut  the  door 
on  our  "coolie"  countrymen. 

In  this  way,  briefly,  America  has 
grown  to  her  present  population  of  80,- 
000,000.  The  remarkable  growth  and 
assimilation  is  still  going  on — a  menace 
to  the  world,  but  in  a  constantly  decreas- 
ing ratio,  which  has  become  so  marked 
that  the  leading  Americans,  the  class 
which  corresponds  to  our  scholars,  are 
aghast  at  the  singular  conditions  which 
exist.  Non-assimilation  shows  itself  in 

ii 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


labor  riots,  in  the  murder  of  two  Presi- 
dents— Garfield  and  Lincoln — in  social- 
istic outbreaks  in  every  quarter,  and  in 
signal  outbreaks  in  various  sections,  at 
lynchings,  and  other  unlawful  perform- 
ances. I  am  attempting  to  give  you  an 
idea  of  the  constituents  of  America  to- 
day; but  so  interesting  is  the  subject,  so 
prolific  in  its  warnings  and  possibilities, 
that  I  find  myself  wandering. 

To  glance  at  conditions  at  the  present 
time,  about  600,000  aliens  are  coming  to 
America  yearly.  What  is  the  result?  I 
was  invited  to  meet  a  distinguished  Ger- 
man visiting  in  New  York  last  month, 
and  at  the  dinner  a  young  lady  who  sat 
by  my  side  said  to  me,  "I  wish  I  could 
puzzle  him."  "Why?"  I  asked,  in  amaze- 
ment. "Oh,"  was  her  reply,  "he  looks 
so  cram  full  of  knowledge;  I  would  like 
to  take  him  down."  "Ah,"  I  said.  "Ask 
him  which  is  the  third  largest  German 
12 


THE    AMERICAN WHO    HE    IS 


city  in  the  world.  It  is  New  York;  he 
will  never  guess  it."  She  did  so,  and  I 
assure  you  he  was  "puzzled,"  and  would 
scarcely  believe  it  until  a  well-known 
man  assured  him  it  was  true.  There  are 
more  Germans  in  Chicago  than  in  Leip- 
sic,  Cologne,  Dresden,  Munich,  or  a 
dozen  small  towns  joined  in  one.  Half 
of  the  Chicago  Germans  speak  their 
own  tongue.  This  city  is  the  third 
Swedish  city  of  the  world  in  population. 
It  is  the  fourth  Polish  city  and  the  sec- 
ond Bohemian  city.  I  was  informed  by 
a  professor  in  the  University  of  Chicago 
that,  in  that  strange  city,  the  number  of 
people  who  speak  the  language  of  the 
Bohemians  equaled  the  combined  in- 
habitants of  Richmond,  Atlanta,  Port- 
land, and  Nashville — all  large  cities. 
"What  do  you  think  of  it?"  I  asked. 
"We  are  up  against  it,"  was  the  reply.  I 
can  not  explain  this  retort  so  that  you 

13 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


would  understand  it,  but  it  had  great  sig- 
nificance. The  professor,  a  distinguished 
philologist,  was  worried,  and  he  looked 
it.  A  lady  who  was  a  club  woman — and 
by  this  I  do  not  mean  that  she  was  armed 
with  a  club,  but  merely  a  member  of 
clubs  or  societies  for  educational  advance- 
ment and  social  aggrandizement — said  it 
was  merely  his  digestion. 

I  learned  from  my  friend,  the  dys- 
peptic professor,  that  over  forty  dialects 
are  spoken  in  Chicago.  About  one-half 
only  of  the  total  population  speak  or  un- 
derstand English.  There  are  500,000 
Germans,  125,000  Poles,  100,000  Swedes, 
90,000  Bohemians,  50,000  Yiddish,  25,- 
ooo  Dutch,  25,000  Italians,  15,000 
French,  10,000  Irish,  10,000  Servians, 
10,000  Lutherans,  7,000  Russians,  and 
5,000  Hungarians  in  Chicago.  You  will 
be  surprised  to  learn  that  numbers  do 
not  count.  The  500,000  Germans  are 
14 


THE    AMERICAN WHO    HE    IS 


not  the  dominating  power,  nor  are  the 
100,000  Swedes.  The  10,000  Irish  are 
said  absolutely  to  control  the  political  sit- 
uation. You  will  ask  if  I  believe  that 
this  monster  foreign  element  can  be  re- 
duced to  a  homogeneous  unit.  I  reply, 
yes.  Fifty  years  from  to-day  they  will  all 
be  Americans,  and  a  majority  will,  doubt- 
less, show  you  their  family  tree,  tracing 
their  ancestry  back  to  the  Mayflower. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE  AMERICAN  MAN 

HASH — and  I  do  not  mean  by  this 
word  a  corruption  of  hasheesh — is  a  term 
indicating  in  America  a  food  formed  of 
more  than  one  article  chopped  and 
cooked  together.  I  was  told  by  a  very 
witty  and  charming  lady  that  hash  was  a 
synonym  for  E  pJuribus  unum  (one  from 
many) ,  the  motto  of  the  Government,  but 
I  did  not  find  it  on  the  American  arms. 
This  was  an  American  "dinner  joke,"  of 
which  more  anon ;  nevertheless,  hash  rep- 
resents the  American  people  of  to-day. 
The  millions  of  all  nations,  which  have 
swarmed  here  since  1492,  may  be  repre- 
sented by  this  delectable  dish,  which, 
after  all,  has  a  certain  homogeneity.  Eng- 
lishmen are  at  once  recognized  here,  and 
16 


THE   AMERICAN    MAN 


so  are  Chinamen.  You  would  never  mis- 
take one  of  our  people  for  a  Japanese; 
an  Italian  you  would  know  across  the 
way;  but  an  American  not  always  in 
America.  He  may  be  a  Swede,  a  Ger- 
man, or  a  Canadian;  he  is  not  an  Amer- 
ican until  he  opens  his  mouth.  Then 
there  is  no  mistake  as  to  what  he  is.  He 
has  a  nasal  tone  that  is  purely  American. 
All  the  old  cities,  as  Boston,  New 
York,  Richmond,  and  Philadelphia,  have 
certain  nasal  peculiarities  or  variants. 
The  Bostonian  affects  the  English.  The 
New  Englander,  especially  in  the  north, 
has  a  comical  twang,  which  you  can  pro- 
duce by  holding  the  nose  tightly  and  at- 
tempting to  speak.  When  he  says  down 
it  sounds  like  daoun.  It  is  impossible 
for  him  not  to  overvowel  his  words,  and 
nothing  is  more  amusing  than  to  hear 
the  true  Yankee  countryman  talk.  The 
Philadelphian  is  quite  as  marked  in  tone 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


and  enunciation.  A  well-educated  Phil- 
adelphian  will  say  where  is  me  wife  for 
my.  I  have  also  been  asked  by  a  Phila- 
delphian,  "Where  are  you  going  at?"  It 
would  be  impossible  to  mistake  the  in- 
tonation of  a  Philadelphian,  even  though 
you  met  him  in  the  wilds  of  Manchuria 
in  the  depths  of  night. 

Among  the  most  charming  and  de- 
lightfully cultured  people  I  met  in 
America  were  Philadelphians  of  old 
families.  The  New  Yorker  is  more  cos- 
mopolitan, while  the  Southern  men,  to  a 
certain  extent,  have  caught  the  inflection 
of  the  negro,  who  is  the  nurse  in  the 
South  for  all  white  children.  The  Amer- 
icans are  taught  that  the  principal  and 
chief  end  of  man  is  to  make  a  fortune 
and  get  married;  but  to  accomplish  this 
it  is  necessary  first  to  "sow  wild  oats,"  be- 
come familiar  with  the  vices  of  drink, 
smoking,  and  other  forms  of  dissipation, 
18 


THE   AMERICAN    MAN 


a  sort  of  test  of  endurance  possibly,  such 
as  is  found  among  many  native  races ;  yet 
one  scarcely  expects  to  find  it  among  the 
latest  and  highest  exponents  of  perfection 
in  the  human  race. 

The  American  pretends  to  be  demo- 
cratic; scoffs  at  England  and  other  Eu- 
ropean lands,  but  at  heart  he  is  an  aris- 
tocrat. His  tastes  are  only  limited  by  his 
means,  and  not  always  then.  Any  Amer- 
ican, especially  a  politician,  will  tell  you 
that  there  is  but  one  class — the  people, 
and  that  all  are  born  equal.  In  point  of 
fact,  there  are  as  many  classes  as  there  are 
grades  of  pronounced  individuality,  and 
all  are  very  unequal,  as  every  one  knows. 
They  are  included  in  a  general  way  in 
three  classes:  the  upper  class  (the  refined 
and  cultivated)  ;  the  middle  class  (repre- 
sented by  the  retail  shop-keepers)  ;  and 
last,  the  rest.  The  cream  of  society  will 
be  found  in  all  the  cities  to  be  among  the 

19 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


professional  men,  clergymen,  presidents 
of  colleges,  long-rich  wholesale  mer- 
chants, judges,  authors,  etc. 

The  distinctions  in  society  are  so  sin- 
gular that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  a 
foreigner  to  understand  them.  There 
are  persons  who  make  it  a  life  study  to 
prepare  books  and  papers  on  the  subject, 
and  whose  opinions  are  readily  accepted ; 
yet  such  a  person  might  not  be  accepted 
in  the  best  society.  What  constitutes 
American  society  and  its  divisions  is  a 
mystery.  In  a  general  sense  a  retail  mer- 
chant, a  man  who  sold  shoes  or  clothes, 
a  tailor,  would  under  no  circumstances 
find  a  place  in  the  first  social  circles;  yet 
if  these  same  tradesmen  should  change 
to  wholesalers  and  give  up  selling  one 
article  at  a  time,  they  would  become 
eligible  to  the  best  society.  They  do  not 
always  get  in,  however.  At  a  dinner  my 
neighbor,  an  attractive  matron,  was  much 
20 


THE   AMERICAN    MAN 


dismayed  by  my  asking  if  she  knew  a 

certain  Mr.  ,  a  well-known  grocer. 

"I  believe  our  supplies  (groceries)  come 
from  him,"  was  her  chilly  reply.  "But," 
I  ventured,  "he  is  now  a  wholesaler." 
"Indeed!"  said  madam;  "I  had  not  heard 
of  it."  The  point,  very  inconceivable  to 
you,  perhaps,  was  that  the  grocer, 
whether  wholesale  or  retail,  was  not 
readily  accepted;  yet  the  man  in  the 
wholesale  business  in  drugs,  books,  wine, 
stores,  fruit,  or  almost  anything  else, 
had  the  entree,  if  he  was  a  gentleman. 
The  druggist,  the  hardware  man,  the 
furniture  dealer,  the  grocer,  the  re- 
tailer would  constitute  a  class  by  them- 
selves, though  of  course  there  are  other 
subtle  divisions  completely  beyond  my 
comprehension. 

At  some  of  the  homes  of  the  first  peo- 
ple I  would  meet  a  president  of  a  uni- 
versity, an  author  of  note,  an  Episcopal 

3  21 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


bishop,  a  general  of  the  regular  army 
(preferably  a  graduate  of  the  West  Point 
Academy),  several  retired  merchants  of 
the  highest  standing,  bankers,  lawyers, 
a  judge  or  two  of  the  Supreme  Bench,  an 
admiral  of  good  family  and  connections. 
I  have  good  reason  to  think  that  a  Meth- 
odist bishop  would  not  be  present  at  such 
a  meeting  unless  he  was  a  remarkable 
man.  There  were  always  a  dozen  men 
of  well-known  lineage;  men  who  knew 
their  family  history  as  far  back  as  their 
great-grandparents,  and  whose  ancestors 
were  associated  with  the  history  of  the 
country  and  its  development.  The  men 
were  all  in  business  or  the  professions. 
They  went  to  their  offices  at  nine  or  ten 
o'clock  and  remained  until  twelve; 
lunched  at  their  clubs  or  at  a  restaurant, 
returned  at  one,  and  many  remained  un- 
til six  before  going  to  their  homes.  The 
work  is  intense.  A  dominating  factor  or 
22 


THE    AMERICAN'    MAN 


characteristic  in  the  American  man  is  his 
pursuit  of  the  dollar.  That  he  secures  it 
is  manifest  from  the  miles  of  beautiful 
residences,  the  show  of  costly  equipages 
and  plate,  the  unlimited  range  of  "stores" 
or  shops  one  sees  in  large  cities.  The 
millionaire  is  a  very  ordinary  individual 
in  America;  it  is  only  the  billionaire  who 
now  really  attracts  attention.  The  wealth 
and  splendors  of  the  homes,  the  mag- 
nificent tout  ensemble  of  these  establish- 
ments, suggests  the  possibility  of  degen- 
eracy, an  appearance  of  demoralization; 
but  I  am  assured  that  this  is  not  apparent 
in  very  wealthy  families. 

It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  wealth 
always  gives  social  position  in  America. 
By  reading  the  American  papers  you 
might  believe  that  this  is  all  that  is  nec- 
essary. Some  wealth  is  of  course  req- 
uisite to  enable  a  family  to  hold  its  own, 
to  give  the  social  retort  courteous,  to  live 

23 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


according  to  the  mode  of  others;  yet 
mere  wealth  will  not  buy  the  entree  to 
the  very  best  society,  even  in  villages. 
Culture,  refinement,  education,  and,  most 
important,  savoir  faire,  constitute  the 
"open  sesame."  I  know  a  billionaire,  at 
least  this  is  his  reputation,  who  has  no 
standing  merely  because  he  is  vulgar — 
that  is,  ill-bred.  I  have  met  another  man, 
a  great  financier,  who  would  give  a 
million  to  have  the  entree  to  the  very  best 
houses.  Instances  could  be  cited  without 
end. 

Such  men  and  women  generally  have 
their  standing  in  Europe;  in  a  word,  go 
abroad  for  the  position  they  can  not  se- 
cure at  home.  A  family  now  allied  to 
one  of  the  proudest  families  in  Europe 
had  absolutely  no  position  in  America 
previous  to  the  alliance,  and  doubtless 
would  not  now  be  taken  up  by  some. 
You  will  understand  that  I  am  speaking 
24 


THE    AMERICAN    MAN 


now  of  the  most  exclusive  American  so- 
ciety, formed  of  families  who  have  age, 
historical  associations,  breeding,  educa- 
tion, great-grandparents,  and  always  have 
had  "manners."  There  are  other  social 
sets  which  pass  as  representative  society, 
into  which  all  the  ill-mannered  nouveau 
riche  can  climb  by  the  golden  stairs;  but 
this  is  not  real  society.  The  richest  man 
in  America,  Rockefeller,  quoted  at  over 
a  billion,  is  a  religious  worker,  and  his 
indulgences  consist  in  gifts  to  universi- 
ties. Another  billionaire,  Mr.  Carnegie, 
gives  his  millions  to  found  libraries.  Mr. 
Morgan,  the  millionaire  banker,  attends 
church  conventions  as  an  antipodal  diver- 
sion. There  is  no  conspicuous  million- 
aire before  the  American  public  who  has 
earned  a  reputation  for  extreme  prof- 
ligacy. 

There  is  a  leisure  class,   the  sons  of 
wealthy  men,  who  devote  their  time  to 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


hunting  and  other  sports;  but  in  the  re- 
cent war  this  class  surged  to  the  front  as 
private  soldiers  and  fought  the  country's 
battlesjJ  I  admire  the  American  gentle- 
man of  the  select  society  class  I  have 
described.  He  is  modest,  intelligent, 
learned  in  the  best  sense,  magnanimous, 
a  type  of  chivalry,  bold,  vigorous,  charm- 
ing as  a  host,  and  the  soul  of  honor.  It 
is  a  regret  that  this  is  not  the  dominating 
and  best-known  class  in  America,  but  it 
is  not;  and  the  alien,  the  stranger  coming 
without  letters  of  Introduction,  would 
fall  into  other  hands)  A  man  might  live 
a  lifetime  in  Philadelphia  or  Boston  and 
never  meet  these  people,  unless  he  had 
been  introduced  by  some  one  who  was  of 
the  same  class  in  some  other  city.  Such 
strange  social  customs  make  strange  bed- 
fellows. Thus,  if  you  came  to  America 
to-day  and  had  letters  to  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent, you  would,  without  doubt,  if  prop- 
26 


THE    AMERICAN    MAN 


erly  accredited,  see  the  very  best  society. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  you  had  letters  to 
the  President  at  his  home  in  the  State  of 
Ohio  you  would  doubtless  meet  an  en- 
tirely different  class,  eminently  respect- 
able, yet  not  the  same.  It  would  be  im- 
possible to  ignore  the  inference  from  this. 
The  Vice-President  is  in  society  (the 
best)  ;  the  President  is  not.  Where  else 
could  this  hold?  Nowhere  but  in 
America. 

The  Americans  affect  to  scorn  caste 
and  sect,  yet  no  nation  has  more  of  them. 
Sets  or  classes,  even  among  men,  are 
found  in  all  towns  where  there  is  any 
display  of  wealth.  The  best  society  of  a 
small  town  consists  of  its  bank  presidents, 
its  clergymen,  its  physicians,  its  authors, 
its  lawyers.  No  matter  how  educated  the 
grocer  may  be,  he  will  not  be  received, 
nor  the  retail  shoe  dealer,  though  the 

shoe  manufacturer,  the  dealer  in  many 

27 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


shoes,  may  be  the  virtual  leader,  at  least 
among  the  men.  Each  town  will  have 
its  clubs,  the  members  ranging  according 
to  their  class;  and  while  it  seems  a  para- 
dox, it  is  true  that  this  classification  is 
mainly  based  upon  the  refinement,  cul- 
ture, and  family  of  the  man.  A  well- 
known  man  once  engaged  me  in  conver- 
sation with  a  view  to  finding  out  some 
facts  regarding  our  social  customs,  and  I 
learned  from  him  that  a  dentist  in  Amer- 
ica would  scarcely  be  received  in  the 
best  society.  He  argued,  that  to  a  man 
of  refinement  and  culture,  such  a  profes- 
sion, which  included  the  cleaning  of 
teeth,  would  be  impossible;  consequently, 
you  would  not  be  likely  to  find  a  really 
cultivated  man  who  was  a  dentist.  On 
the  same  grounds  an  undertaker  would 
not  be  admitted  to  the  first  society. 

With   us   a  gentleman   is  born;  with 
Americans  it  is  possible  to  create  one, 
28 


THE    AMERICAN    MAN 


though  rarely.  An  American  gentleman 
is  described  as  a  product  of  two  genera- 
tions of  college  men  who  have  always 
had  association  with  gentlemen  and  the 
advantages  of  family  standing.  Political 
elevation  can  not  affect  a  man's  status  as 
a  gentleman.  I  heard  a  lady  of  unques- 
tioned position  say  that  she  admired 
President  McKinley,  but  regretted  that 
he  was  not  a  gentleman.  She  meant  that 
he  was  not  an  aristocrat,  and  did  not  pos- 
sess the  savoir  faire,  or  the  family  asso- 
ciations, that  completely  round  out  the 
American  or  English  gentleman.  I 
asked  this  lady  to  indicate  the  gentlemen 
Presidents  of  the  country.  There  were 
very  few  that  I  recall.  There  were  Wash- 
ington, Harrison,  Adams,  and  Arthur. 
Doubtless  there  were  others,  which  have 
escaped  me.  Lincoln,  the  strongest 
American  type,  she  did  not  consider  in 
the  gentlemen  class,  and  General  Grant, 

29 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


the  nation's  especial  pride,  did  not  fulfil 
her  ideas  of  what  a  gentleman  should  be. 
You  will  perceive,  then,  that  what  some 
American  people  consider  a  gentleman 
and  what  its  most  exclusive  society  ac- 
cepts for  one,  comprise  two  entirely  dif- 
ferent personages.  I  found  this  empha- 
sized especially  in  the  old  society  of 
Washington,  which  takes  its  traditions 
from  Washington's  time  or  even  the  pre- 
Revolutionary  period.  For  such  society 
a  self-made  man  was  impossible.  Such 
are  the  remarkable,  indeed  astounding, 
ramifications  of  the  social  system  of  a 
people  who  cry  to  heaven  of  their  de- 
mocracy. "Americans  are  all  equal — this 
is  one  of  the  gems  in  our  diadem."  This 
epigram  I  heard  drop  from  the  lips  of  a 
senator  who  was  the  recognized  aristo- 
crat of  the  chamber;  yet  a  man  of  pecul- 
iar social  reserve,  who  would  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  other  "equals."  In  a 
30 


THE    AMERICAN    MAN 


word,  all  the  talk  of  equality  is  an  absurd 
figure  of  speech.  America  is  at  heart  as 
much  an  aristocracy  as  England,  and  the 
social  divisions  are  much  the  same  under 
the  surface. 

You  will  understand  that  social  rules 
and  customs  are  all  laid  down  and  ex- 
acted by  women  and  from  women.  From 
them  I  obtained  all  my  information.  No 
American  gentleman  would  talk  (to  me 
at  least)  on  the  subject.  Ask  one  of  them 
if  there  is  an  American  aristocracy,  and 
he  will  pass  over  the  question  in  an  en- 
gaging manner,  and  tell  you  that  his  gov- 
ernment is  based  on  the  principle  of 
perfect  equality — one  of  the  most  trans- 
parent farces  to  be  found  in  this  interest- 
ing country.  I  have  outlined  to  you 
what  I  conceived  to  be  the  best  society  in 
each  city,  and  in  the  various  sections  of 
the  country.  In  morality  and  probity  I 
believe  them  to  stand  very  high;  lapses 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


there  may  be,  but  the  general  tone  is 
good.  The  women  are  charming  and  re- 
fined; the  men  chivalrous,  brave,  well- 
poised,  and  highly  educated.  Unfortu- 
nately, the  Americans  who  compose  this 
"set"  are  numerically  weak.  They  are 
not  represented  to  the  extent  of  being  a 
dominating  body,  and  oddly  enough,  the 
common  people,  the  shopkeepers,  the 
people  in  the  retail  trades,  do  not  under- 
stand them  as  leaders  from  the  fact  that 
they  are  so  completely  aloof  that  they 
never  meet  them.  A  sort  of  inner  "holy 
of  holies"  is  the  real  aristocracy  of  Amer- 
ica. What  goes  for  society  among  the 
people,  the  mob,  and  the  press  is  the  set 
(and  a  set  means  a  faction,  a  clique) 
known  as  the  Four  Hundred,  so  named 
because  it  was  supposed  to  represent  the 
"blue  blood"  of  New  York  ten  years  ago 
in  its  perfection.  This  Four  Hundred 
has  its  prototype  in  all  cities,  and  in  some 
32 


THE    AMERICAN    MAN 


cities  is  known  as  the  "fast  set."  In  New 
York  it  is  made  up  often  of  the  descend- 
ants of  old  families,  the  heads  of  whom 
in  many  instances  were  retail  traders 
within  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago; 
but  the  modern  wealthy  representatives 
endeavor  to  forget  this  or  skip  over  it. 
It  is,  however,  constantly  kept  alive  by 
what  is  termed  the  "yellow  press,"  which 
delights  in  picturing  the  ancestor  of  one 
family  as  a  pedler  and  an  itinerant 
trader,  and  the  head  of  another  family  as 
a  vegetable  vender,  and  so  on,  literally 
venting  its  spleen  upon  them. 

In  my  studies  in  American  sociology 
I  asked  many  questions,  and  obtained  the 
most  piquant  replies  from  women.  One 
lady,  a  leader  in  New  York  in  what  I 
have  termed  the  exclusive  set,  informed 
me  with  a  laugh  that  the  ancestor  of  a 
well-known  family  of  to-day,  one  which 
cuts  a  commanding  figure  in  society,  was 

33 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


an  ordinary  laborer  in  the  employ  of  her 
grandfather.  "Yet  you  receive  them?" 
I  suggested.  The  reply  was  a  shrug  of 
charming  shoulders,  which,  translated, 
meant  that  great  wealth  had  here  enabled 
them  to  "bore"  into  the  exclusive  circle. 
I  found  that  even  among  these  people, 
the  creme  de  la  creme  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people,  there  were  inner  circles,  and 
these  were  not  on  intimate  terms  with  the 
others.  Here  I  met  a  member  of  the 
Washington  and  Lee  family,  a  descend- 
ant of  Bishop  Provoost,  the  first  Epis- 
copal bishop  of  New  York,  and  friend 
of  Washington  and  Hamilton.  This  lat- 
ter family  is  notable  for  an  ancestry  run- 
ning back  to  the  massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew and  even  beyond.  I  astonished 
its  charming  descendant,  who  very  deli- 
cately informed  me  that  she  knew  her 
ancestry  as  far  back  as  1200  A.  D.,  when 
I  told  her  that  I  had  my  "family  tree," 
34 


THE    AMERICAN    MAN 


as  they  call  it,  without  a  break  for  thirty- 
two  hundred  years.  I  am  confident  she 
did  not  believe  me,  but  her  "Indeed!" 
was  delightful.  In  fact,  I  assure  you  I 
have  lost  my  heart  to  these  American 
women.  I  met  representatives  of  the 
Adams,  Dana,  Madison,  Lee,  and  other 
families  identified  with  American  history 
in  a  most  honorable  way. 

The  continuity  of  the  Four  Hundred 
idea  as  a  logical  system  was  broken  by 
the  quality  of  some  of  its  members.  Com- 
pared to  the  society  I  have  previously 
mentioned  it  was  as  chaff.  There  was  a 
total  lack  of  intellectuality.  Degeneracy 
marked  some  of  their  acts;  divorce  black- 
ened their  records,  and  shameless  affairs 
marked  them.  In  this  "set,"  and  particu- 
larly its  imitators  throughout  the  United 
States,  the  divorce  rate  is  appalling. 
Men  leave  their  wives  and  obtain  a  di- 
vorce for  no  other  reason  than  that  a 

35 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


woman  falls  in  love  with  another 
woman's  husband.  On  a  yacht  we  will 
say  there  is  some  scandal.  A  divorce 
ensues,  and  afterward  the  parties  are  re- 
married. Or  we  will  say  a  wife  succumbs 
to  the  blandishments  of  another  man. 
The  conjugal  arrangements  are  rear- 
ranged, so  that,  as  a  very  merry  New 
York  club  man  told  me,  "It  is  difficult 
to  tell  where  you  are  at."  In  a  word, 
the  morale  of  the  men  of  this  set  is  low, 
their  standard  high,  but  not  always  lived 
up  to.  I  believe  that  I  am  not  doing  the 
American  of  the  middle  class  wrong  and 
the  ultra-fashionable  class  an  injustice  in 
saying  that  it  is  as  a  class  immoral. 

Americans  make  great  parade  of  their 
churches.  Spires  rise  like  the  pikes  of 
an  army  in  every  town,  yet  the  morality 
of  the  men  is  low.  There  are  in  this  land 
600,000  prostitutes — ruined  women.  But 
this  is  not  due  entirely  to  the  Four  Hun- 

36 


THE    AMERICAN    MAN 


dred,  whose  irregularities  appear  to  be 
confined  to  inroads  upon  their  own  set. 
Nearly  all  these  men  are  club  men ;  two- 
thirds  are  in  business  as  brokers,  bankers, 
or  professional  men;  and  there  is  a  large 
percentage  of  men  of  leisure  and  vast 
wealth.  They  affect  English  methods, 
and  are,  as  a  rule,  not  highly  intelligent, 
but  blase,  often  effeminate,  an  interesting 
spectacle  to  the  student,  showing  that 
the  downfall  of  the  American  Republic 
would  come  sooner  than  that  of  Rome  if 
the  "fast  set"  were  a  dominating  force, 
which  it  is  not. 

In  the  great  middle  class  of  the  Amer- 
ican men  I  find  much  to  admire;  half 
educated,  despite  their  boasted  school 
system,  they  put  up,  to  quote  one  of  them, 
"a  splendid  bluff"  of  respectability  and 
morality,  yet  their  statistics  give  the  lie 
to  it.  Their  divorces  are  phenomenal, 
and  they  are  obtained  on  the  slightest 
4  37 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


cause.  If  a  man  or  woman  becomes 
weary  of  the  other  they  are  divorced  on 
the  ground  of  incompatibility  of  temper. 
A  lady,  a  descendant  of  one  of  the  old- 
est families,  desired  to  marry  her  friend's 
husband.  He  charged  his  wife  with  va- 
rious vague  acts,  one  of  which,  according 
to  the  press,  was  that  she  did  not  wear 
"corsets" — a  sort  of  steel  frame  which 
the  American  women  wear  to  compress 
the  waist.  This  was  not  accepted  by  the 
learned  judge,  and  the  wife  then  left  her 
husband  and  went  away  on  a  six  or  eight 
months'  visit.  This  enabled  the  husband 
to  put  in  a  claim  of  desertion,  and  the  de- 
cree of  divorce  was  granted.  A  quicker 
method  is  to  pretend  to  throw  the  break- 
fast dishes  at  your  wife,  who  makes  a 
charge  of  "extreme  incompatibility," 
and  a  divorce  is  at  once  obtained.  Cer- 
tain Territories  bank  on  their  divorce 
laws,  and  the  mismated  have  but  to  go 
38 


THE    AMERICAN    MAN 


there  and  live  a  few  months  to  obtain  a 
separation  on  almost  any  claim.  Many 
of  the  most  distinguished  statesmen  have 
been  charged  with  certain  moral  lapses 
in  the  heat  of  political  fights,  which,  in 
almost  every  instance,  are  ignored  by  the 
victims,  their  silence  being  significant  to 
some,  illogical  to  others;  yet  the  fact  re- 
mains that  the  press  goes  to  the  greatest 
extremes.  No  family  secret  is  consid- 
ered sacred  to  the  American  politician 
in  the  heat  of  a  campaign;  to  win, 
he  would  sacrifice  the  husband,  father, 
mother,  and  children  of  his  enemy.  So 
remarkable  is  the  rage  for  divorce  that 
many  of  the  great  religious  denomina- 
tions have  taken  up  arms  against  it. 
Catholics  forbid  it.  Episcopalians  re- 
sent it  by  ostracism  if  the  cause  is  trivial, 
and  a  "separation"  is  denounced  in  the 
pulpit. 


39 


CHAPTER   III 

AMERICAN  CUSTOMS 

/THE  American  is  an  interesting, 
though  not  always  pleasant,  study.  His 
perfect  equipoise,  his  independence,  his 
assumption  that  he  is  the  best  product  of 
the  best  soil  in  the  world,  comes  first  as 
a  shock;  but  when  you  find  this  but  one 
of  the  many  national  characteristics  it 
merely  amuses  you/(pne  of  the  extraordi- 
nary features  of  the  American  is  his  atti- 
tude toward  the  Chinese,  who  are  taken 
on  sufferance.  The  lower  classes  abso- 
lutely can  conceive  of  no  difference 
between  me  and  the  "coolie."  As  an 
example,  a  boy  on  the  street  accosts  me 
with  "Hi,  John,  you  washee,  washeePy 
Even  a  representative  in  Congress  in- 
sisted on  calling  me  "John."  On  pro- 
40 


AMERICAN    CUSTOMS 


testing  to  another  man,  he  laughed,  and 
said,  "Oh,  the  man  don't  know  any 
better."  "But,"  I  replied,  "if  he  does 
not  know  any  better,  how  is  it  he  is  a 
lawmaker  in  your  lower  house?"  "I 
give  it  up,"  was  his  answer,  and  he  or- 
dered what  they  term  a  "high-ball." 
After  we  had  tried  several,  he  laughed 
and  asked,  "Shall  we  consider  the  matter 
a  closed  incident?"  Many  diplomatic, 
social,  and  political  questions  are  often 

?tled  with  a  "high-ball." 
It  is  inconceivable  to  the  average 
American  that  there  can  be  an  educated 
Chinese  gentleman,  a  man  of  real  refine- 
ment. They  know  us  by  the  Cantonese 
laundrymen,  the  class  which  ranks  with 
their  lowest  classes.)  At  dinners  and  re- 
ceptions I  was  asked  the  most  atrocious 
questions  by  men  and  women.  One 
charming  young  girl,  who  I  was  in- 
formed was  the  relative  of  a  Cabinet 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


officer,  asked  me  if  I  would  not  some- 
time put  up  my  "pig-tail,"  as  she  wished 
to  photograph  me.  Another  asked  if  it 
was  really  true  that  we  privately  consid- 
ered all  Americans  as  "white  devils." 
All  had  an  inordinate  curiosity  to  know 
my  "point  of  view";  what  I  thought  of 
them,  how  their  customs  differed  from 
my  own.  Of  course,  replies  were  man- 
ifestly impossible.  At  a  dinner  a  young 
man,  who,  I  learned,  was  a  sort  of  pro- 
fessional diner-out,  remarked  to  a  lady: 
"None  of  the  American  girls  will  have 
me  for  a  husband;  do  you  not  think  that 
if  I  should  go  to  China  some  pretty 
Chinese  girl  would  have  me?"  This  was 
said  before  all  the  company.  Every  one 
was  silent,  waiting  for  the  response. 
Looking  up,  she  replied,  with  charming 
naivete,  "No,  I  do  not  think  so,"  which 
produced  much  laughter.  Now  you 
would  have  thought  the  young  man 
42 


AMERICAN    CUSTOMS 


would  have  been  slightly  discomfited, 
but  not  at  all;  he  laughed  heartily,  and 
plumed  himself  upon  the  fact  that  he  had 
succeeded  in  bringing  out  a  reply. 

American  men  have  a  variety  of  cos- 
tumes for  as  many  occasions.  They  have 
one  for  the  morning,  which  is  called  a 
sack-coat,  that  is,  tailless,  and  is  of  mixed 
colors.  With  this  they  wear  a  low  hat, 
an  abomination  called  the  derby.  After 
twelve  o'clock  the  frock-coat  is  used, 
having  long  tails  reaching  to  the  knees. 
Senators  often  wear  this  costume  in  the 
morning — why  I  could  not  learn,  though 
I  imagine  they  think  it  is  more  dignified 
than  the  sack.  With  the  afternoon  suit 
goes  a  high  silk  hat,  called  a  "plug"  by 
the  lower  classes,  who  never  wear  them. 
After  dark  two  suits  of  black  are  worn: 
one  a  sack,  being  informal,  the  other  with 
tails,  very  formal.  They  also  have  a  suit 
for  the  bath — a  robe — and  a  sleeping-cos- 

43 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


tume,  like  a  huge  bag,  with  sleeves  and 
neck-hole.  This  is  the  night-shirt,  and 
formerly  a  "nightcap"  was  used  by 
some.  There  is  also  a  hat  to  go  with  the 
evening  costume — a  high  hat,  which 
crushes  in.  You  may  sit  on  it  without  in- 
jury to  yourself  or  hat.  I  know  this  by 
a  harrowing  experience. 

Many  of  the  customs  of  the  Americans 
are  strange.  Their  social  life  consists  of 
dinners,  receptions,  balls,  card-parties, 
teas,  and  smokers.  At  all  but  the  last 
women  are  present.  At  the  dinner  every 
one  is  in  evening  dress;  the  men  wear 
black  swallowtail  coats,  following  the 
English  in  every  way,  low  white  vest, 
white  starched  shirt,  white  collar  and 
necktie,  and  black  trousers.  If  the  din- 
ner does  not  include  women  the  coat-tails 
are  eliminated,  and  the  vest  and  necktie 
are  black.  Exactly  why  this  is  I  do  not 
understand,  nor  do  the  Americans.  The 
44 


AMERICAN    CUSTOMS 


dinner  is  begun  with  the  national  drink, 
the  "cocktail";  then  follow  oysters  on 
the  half-shell,  which  you  eat  with  an  ob- 
ject resembling  the  trident  carried  in  the 
ceremony  of  Ah  Dieu  at  the  Triennial. 
Each  course  of  the  dinner  is  accompa- 
nied by  a  different  wine,  an  agreeable 
but  exhilarating  custom.  The  knife  and 
fork  are  used,  the  latter  to  go  into  the 
mouth,  the  former  not,  and  here  you  see 
a  singular  ethnologic  feature.  Class  dis- 
tinctions may  at  times  be  recognized  by 
the  knife  or  fork.  Thus  I  was  informed 
that  you  could  at  once  recognize  a  per- 
son of  the  gentleman  class  by  his  use  of 
the  knife  and  fork.  "This  is  infallible," 
said  my  young  lady  companion.  If  he 
is  a  commoner,  he  eats  with  his  knife ;  if 
a  gentleman,  with  his  fork.  This  was  a 
very  nice  distinction,  and  I  looked  care- 
fully for  a  knife  eater,  but  never  saw  one. 
There  is  a  vast  amount  of  ceremony 

45 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


and  etiquette  about  a  dinner  and  various 
rules  for  eating,  to  break  which  is  a  social 
offense.  I  heard  that  a  certain  Madam 

gave  lessons  in  "good  form"  after 

the  American  fashion,  so  that  one  could 
learn  what  was  expected,  and  at  my  first 
dinner  I  regretted  that  I  had  not  availed 
myself  of  the  services  of  the  lady,  as  at 
each  plate  there  were  nearly  a  dozen 
solid  silver  articles  to  be  used  in  the  dif- 
ferent courses,  but  I  endeavored  to  es- 
cape by  watching  my  companion  and 
following  her  example.  But  here  the 
impossibility  of  an  American  girl  resist- 
ing a  joke  caused  my  downfall.  She  at 
once  saw  my  dilemma,  and  would  take 
up  the  wrong  implement,  and  when  I 
followed  suit  she  dropped  it  and  took 
another,  laughing  in  her  eyes  in  a  way  in 
which  the  American  girl  is  a  prodigious 
adept;  but  completely  deceived  by  her 
nearly  every  time,  knowing  that  she  was 
46 


AMERICAN    CUSTOMS 


amusing  herself  at  my  expense,  I  said 
nothing.  The  Americans  have  a  peculiar 
term  for  the  mental  attitude  I  had  during 
this  trial.  I  "sawed  wood."  The  saying 
was  particularly  applicable  to  my  situa- 
tion. My  young  companion  was  most 
engaging,  and  presently  began  to  talk  of 
the  superiority  of  America,  her  inven- 
tions, etc.,  mentioning  the  telephone, 
printing,  and  others.  "Yes,  wonderful," 
I  replied;  "but  the  Chinese  had  the  tele- 
phone ages  ago.  They  invented  printing, 
gunpowder,  the  mariner's  compass,  and 
it  would  be  difficult,"  I  said,  "for  you  to 
mention  an  object  which  China  has  not 
had  for  ages."  She  was  amazed  that  I,  a 
Chinaman,  should  "claim  everything  in 
sight." 

There  is  a  peculiar  etiquette  relating 
to  every  course  in  a  dinner.  The  soup  is 
eaten  with  a  bowl-like  spoon,  and  it  is 
the  grossest  breach  to  place  this  in  your 

47 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


mouth,  or  approach  it,  endwise.  You  ap- 
proach the  side  and  suck  the  soup  from 
it.  To  make  a  noise  would  attract  atten- 
tion. The  etiquette  of  the  fish  is  to  eat  it 
with  a  fork;  to  use  the  knife  even  to  cut 
the  fish  would  be  unpardonable,  or  to 
touch  it  to  take  out  the  bones;  the  fork 
alone  must  be  used.  The  punch  course 
is  often  an  embarrassment  to  the  previous 
wines,  and  is  followed  by  what  the 
French  call  the  entree.  In  fact,  while 
the  Americans  boast  that  everything 
American  is  the  best,  French  customs  are 
followed  at  banquets  invariably,  this  be- 
ing one  of  the  strange  inconsistencies  of 
the  Americans.  Their  clothes  are  copied 
from  the  English,  though  they  will  claim 
in  the  same  breath  that  their  tailors  are  the 
best  in  the  world.  For  wines  they  claim 
to  be  unsurpassed,  producing  the  finest; 
yet  the  wines  on  their  tables  are  French 
or  bear  French  labels.  Game  is  served — 
48 


AMERICAN   CUSTOMS 


a  grouse  or  perhaps  a  hare,  and  then  a 
vast  roast,  possibly  venison,  or  beef,  and 
there  are  vegetables,  followed  by  a  salad 
of  some  kind.  Then  comes  the  dessert — 
an  iced  cream,  cakes,  nuts,  raisins,  cheese, 
and  coffee  with  brandy,  and  then  cigars 
and  vermuth  or  some  cordial.  After 
such  a  dinner  of  three  hours  a  Southern 
gentleman  clapped  me  on  the  back  and 
said,  "Great  dinner,  that;  but  let's  go  and 
get  a  drink  of  something  solid,"  and  I 
saw  him  take  what  he  termed  "two  fin- 
gers" of  Kentucky  Bourbon  whisky — a 
very  stiff  drink.  I  often  wondered  how 
the  guests  could  stand  so  much. 

The  dinner  has  no  attendant  amuse- 
ment, no  dancing,  no  professional  enter- 
tainers, and  rarely  lasts  over  two  hours. 
Some  houses  have  stringed  bands  con- 
cealed behind  barriers  of  flowers  playing 
soft  music,  but  in  the  main  the  dinner  is 
a  jollification,  a  symposium  of  stories, 

49 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


where  the  guests  take  a  turn  at  telling 
tales.  Story-tellers  can  not  be  hired,  and 
the  guest  at  the  proper  moment  says 
(after  having  prepared  himself  before- 
hand), "That  reminds  me  of  a  story," 
and  he  relates  what  he  has  learned  with 
great  eclat  and  applause,  as  every  Amer- 
ican will  applaud  a  good  story,  even  if 
he  has  heard  it  time  and  again.  At 
one  dinner  which  I  attended  in  New 
York  story-telling  had  been  going  on  for 
some  time  when  a  well-known  man  came 
in  late.  He  was  received  with  applause, 
and  when  called  on  for  a  speech  told  ex- 
actly the  same  story,  by  a  strange  coinci- 
dence, that  had  been  told  by  the  last 
speaker.  Not  a  guest  interfered;  he  was 
allowed  to  proceed,  and  at  the  end  the 
point  was  greeted  with  a  roar  of  laugh- 
ter. This  appeared  to  me  to  be  an  ex- 
cellent quality  in  the  American  charac- 
ter. I  was  informed  that  these  stories, 
50 


AMERICAN   CUSTOMS 


forming  so  important  a  feature  of  Amer- 
ican dinners,  are  the  product  mainly  of 
drummers  and  certain  prominent  men; 
but  why  men  that  drum  are  more  skilful 
in  story  inventing  I  failed  to  learn. 
President  Lincoln  and  a  lawyer  named 
Daniel  Webster  originated  a  large  per- 
centage of  the  current  stories.  It  is  dif- 
ficult to  understand  exactly  what  the 
Americans  mean. 

The  American  story  is  incomprehen- 
sible to  the  average  foreigner,  but  it  is 
good  form  to  laugh.  I  will  relate  sev- 
eral as  illustrative  of  American  wit,  and 
I  might  add  that  many  of  these  have 
been  published  in  books  for  the  benefit  of 
the  diner-out.  A  Cabinet  minister  told 
of  a  prisoner  who  was  called  to  the  bar 
and  asked  his  name.  The  man  had  some 
impediment  in  his  speech,  one  of  the 
hundred  complaints  of  the  tongue,  and 
began  to  hiss,  uttering  a  strange  stutter- 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


ing  sound  like  escaping  steam.  The 
judge  listened  a  few  moments,  then  turn- 
ing to  the  guard  said,  "Officer,  what  is 
this  man  charged  with?"  "Soda-water, 
I  think,  your  honor,"  was  the  reply. 
This  was  unintelligible  to  me  until  my 
companion  explained  it.  You  must  un- 
derstand that  soda-water  is  a  drink  that 
is  charged  with  gas  and  makes  a  hissing, 
spluttering  noise  when  opened.  Hence 
when  the  judge  asked  what  the  prisoner 
was  charged  with  the  policeman,  an 
Irishman,  retorted  with  a  joke,  the  story- 
teller disregarding  the  fact  that  it  was 
an  impertinence. 

A  distinguished  New  York  judge  told 
the  following:  Two  tenement  harridans 
look  out  of  their  windows  simultaneously. 
"Good-morning,  Mrs.  Moriarity,"  says 
one.  "Good-morning,  Mrs.  Gilfillan," 
says  the  other,  adding,  "not  that  I  care 

a  d ,  but  just  to  make  conversation." 

52 


AMERICAN    CUSTOMS 


This  was  considered  wit  of  the  sharpest 
kind,  and  was  received  with  applause. 
In  their  stories  the  Americans  spare 
neither  age,  sex,  nor  relatives.  The  fol- 
lowing was  related  by  a  general  of  the 
army.  He  said  he  took  a  friend  home  to 
spend  the  night  with  him,  the  guest  occu- 
pying the  best  room.  When  he  came 
down  in  the  morning  he  turned  to  the 
hostess  and  said,  "Mrs. ,  that  was  ex- 
cellent tooth-powder  you  placed  at  my 
disposal;  can  you  give  me  the  name 
of  the  maker?"  The  hostess  fairly 
screamed.  "What,"  she  exclaimed,  "the 
powder  in  the  urn?"  "Yes,"  replied 
the  officer,  startled;  "was  it  poison?" 
"Worse,  worse,"  said  she;  "you  swal- 
lowed Aunt  Janel"  Conceive  of  this 
wretched  taste.  The  guest  had  actual- 
ly cleaned  his  teeth  with  the  cremated 
dust  of  the  general's  aunt;  yet  he  told 
the  story  before  a  dinner  assemblage, 
s  53 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


and    it    was    received    with    shouts    of 
laughter. 

I  did  not  hear  the  intellectual  conver- 
sation at  dinner  I  had  expected.  Art, 
science,  literature,  were  rarely  touched 
upon,  although  I  invariably  met  artists, 
litterateurs,  and  scientific  men  at  these 
dinners.  They  all  talked  small  talk  or 
"told  stories."  I  was  informed  that  if  I 
wished  to  hear  the  weighty  questions  of 
the  day  discussed  I  must  go  to  the  wom- 
en's clubs,  or  to  Madam  -  — 's  Current 
Topics  Society.  The  latter  is  an  extraor- 
dinary affair,  where  society  women  who 
have  no  time  to  read  the  news  of  the  day 
listen  to  short  lectures  on  the  news  of  the 
preceding  week,  discussed  pro  and  con, 
giving  these  women  in  a  nutshell  material 
for  intelligent  conversation  when  they 
meet  senators  and  other  men  at  the  va- 
rious receptions  before  which  they  wish 
to  make  an  agreeable  impression. 
54 


AMERICAN    CUSTOMS 


The  American  has  many  clubs,  but  is 
not  entirely  at  home  in  them.  He  uses 
them  as  places  in  which  to  play  poker  or 
whist,  to  dine  his  men  friends,  and  in  a 
great  measure  because  it  is  the  "proper 
thing."  At  many  a  room  is  set  apart  for 
the  national  game  of  poker — a  fascina- 
ting game  to  the  player  who  wins.  Poker 
was  never  mentioned  in  my  presence  that 
some  did  not  make  a  joke  on  a  supposed 
Chinaman  named  Ah  Sin;  but  the  ob- 
scurity of  the  joke  and  my  lack  of 
knowledge  regarding  American  litera- 
ture caused  the  point  to  elude  me  at  first, 
which  was  true  of  many  jokes.  The 
Americans  are  preeminently  practical 
jokers,  and  the  ends  to  which  they  go  is 
beyond  belief.  I  heard  of  jokes  which, 
if  perpetrated  in  China,  would  have  re- 
sulted in  the  loss  of  some  one's  head.  To 
illustrate  this,  in  the  Spanish-American 
War  the  camps  at  Tampa  were  besieged 

55 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


with  newspaper  reporters,  and  one  from 
a  large  journal  was  constantly  trying  to 
secure  secret  news  by  entertaining  cer- 
tain officers  with  wine  and  cigars ;  so  they 
determined  to  get  rid  of  his  importuni- 
ties, and  what  is  known  as  a  "job"  in 
America  was  "put  up"  on  him.  He  was 

told  that  Colonel had  a  detailed 

map  of  the  forthcoming  battle,  and  if  he 
could  get  the  officer  intoxicated  he  doubt- 
less could  secure  the  map.  This  looked 
very  easy  to  the  correspondent,  so  the 
story  goes,  and  he  dropped  into  the  colo- 
nel's tent  one  night  with  a  basket  of 
wine,  and  began  to  celebrate  its  arrival 
from  some  friends.  Soon  the  colonel 
pretended  to  become  communicative, 
and  the  map  was  brought  out  and  finally 
loaned  to  the  correspondent  under  the 
promise  that  it  would  not  be  used.  This 
was  sufficient.  The  correspondent  hied 
him  to  his  tent,  wrote  an  article  and  sent 
56 


AMERICAN    CUSTOMS 


the  map  to  his  paper  in  one  of  the  large 
cities,  where  it  was  duly  published.  It 
proved  to  be  what  dressmakers  call  a 
"Butterick  pattern,"  a  maze  of  lines  for 
cutting  out  dresses  for  women.  The  lines 
looked  like  roads,  and  the  practical 
jokers  had  merely  added  towns  and  forts 
and  bridges  here  and  there. 

The  Americans  are  excellent  parents, 
though  small  families  are  general.  The 
domestic  life  is  charming.  The  family 
is  denied  nothing  needed,  the  only  limit 
being  the  purse  of  the  head  of  the  fam- 
ily, so  called,  the  real  head  in  many  cases 
being  the  wife,  who  does  not  fail  to  assert 
herself  if  the  proper  occasion  opens. 
Well-to-do  families  have  every  luxury, 
and  no  nation  is  apparently  so  well  off, 
so  completely  supplied  with  the  necessi- 
ties of  life  as  the  American.  One  is 
impressed  by  their  business  sagacity, 
their  cleverness  in  finance,  their  complete 

57 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


grasp  of  all  questions,  yet  no  people  are 
easier  gulled  or  more  readily  victimized. 
An  instance  will  suffice.  In  making  my 
investigations  regarding  methods  of  man- 
aging railroads,  I  not  only  obtained  in- 
formation from  the  road  officials,  but 
questioned  the  employees  whenever  it 
happened  that  I  was  traveling.  One  day, 
observing  that  it  was  the  custom  to  "tip" 
the  porters  (give  money),  I  asked  the 
conductor  what  the  men  were  paid.  "Lit- 
tle or  nothing,"  was  the  reply;  "they  get 
from  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  dollars 
a  month  out  of  the  passengers  on  a  long 
run."  "But  the  passengers  paid  the  road 
for  the  service?"  "Yes,  and  they  pay  the 
salary  of  the  porter  also,"  said  the  man. 
With  that  in  view  the  men  are  poorly 
paid,  and  the  railroad  knows  that  the 
people  will  make  up  their  salaries,  as 
they  do.  If  you  refused  you  would  have 
no  service. 
58 


AMERICAN    CUSTOMS 


This  rule  holds  everywhere,  in  hotels 
and  restaurants.  Servants  receive  little 
pay  where  the  patronage  is  rich,  with  the 
understanding  that  they  will  make  it  up 
out  of  the  customers.  Thus  if  you  go  to 
a  hotel  you  fee  the  bell-boy  for  bringing 
you  a  glass  of  water.  If  you  order  one 
of  the  seductive  cocktails  you  fee  the 
man  who  brings  it;  you  fee  the  chamber- 
maid who  attends  to  your  room.  In- 
finite are  the  resources  of  these  servants 
who  do  not  receive  a  fee.  You  fee  the 
elevator  or  lift  boy,  or  he  will  take  the 
opportunity  to  jerk  you  up  as  though 
shot  out  of  a  gun.  You  fee  the  porter 
for  taking  up  your  trunk,  and  give  a  spe- 
cial fee  for  unstrapping  it.  You  fee  the 
head  waiter,  and  when  you  fee  the  table 
waiter  he  whispers  in  your  ear  that  a 
slight  fee  will  be  acceptable  to  the  cook, 
who  will  see  that  the  Count  or  the  Judge 
will  be  cared  for  as  becomes  his  station. 

59 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


When  you  leave,  the  sidewalk  porter  ex- 
pects a  fee;  if  he  does  not  receive  it  the 
door  of  the  carriage  may  possibly  be 
slammed  on  the  tail  of  your  coat.  Then 
you  pay  the  cabman  two  dollars  to  carry 
you  to  the  station,  and  fee  him.  Arriv- 
ing at  the  station,  he  hands  you  over  to 
a  red-hatted  porter,  who  carries  your 
baggage  for  a  fee.  He  puts  you  in  charge 
of  the  railroad  porter,  who  is  feed  at  the 
rate  of  about  fifty  cents  per  diem. 

The  American  submits  to  this  robbery 
without  a  murmur;  yet  he  is  sagacious, 
prudent.  I  can  only  explain  his  gullibil- 
ity on  the  ground  of  his  innate  snobbery; 
he  thinks  it  is  the  "thing  to  do,"  and  does 
it,  and  for  this  reason  it  is  carried  to 
the  most  merciless  lengths.  To  illustrate. 
In  the  season  of  1902,  when  I  was  at 
Newport,  Mr. ,  a  conspicuous  mem- 
ber of  the  New  York  smart  set,  known  as 
the  "Four  Hundred,"  lost  his  hat  in  some 
60 


AMERICAN    CUSTOMS 


way  and  rode  to  his  home  without  one. 
The  ubiquitous  reporter  saw  him,  and 
photographed  him,  bareheaded,  and  his 
paper,  the  New  York  -  — ,  gave  a  col- 
umn the  following  day  to  a  description 
of  the  new  fad  of  going  without  a  hat. 
Thus  the  fashion  started,  and  the  amaz- 
ing spectacle  was  seen  the  summer  fol- 
lowing of  men  and  women  of  fashion 
riding  and  walking  for  miles  without 
hats.  This  is  beyond  belief,  yet  it  attract- 
ed no  attention  from  the  common  people, 
who  perhaps  got  the  cast-off  hats.  De- 
spite this,  the  Americans  are  hard-fisted, 
shrewd,  and  as  a  nation  a  match  for  any 
in  the  field  of  cunning. 

I  can  explain  it  in  no  way  than  by  as- 
suming that  it  is  due  to  overanxiety  to 
do  the  correct  thing.  Their  own  actors 
satirize  them,  one  especially  taking  them 
off  in  a  jingle  which  read,  "It's  English, 
quite  English,  you  know."  It  is  said  of 

61 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


the  men  of  the  "Four  Hundred"  that 
they  turn  up  their  trousers  when  it  rains 
in  London,  special  reports  of  the  weather 
being  sent  to  the  clubs  for  the  purpose; 
but  I  cannot  vouch  for  this.  I  have  seen 
the  trousers  turned  up  in  all  weathers, 
and  found  no  one  who  could  explain 
why  he  did  so.  What  can  you  make  of 
so  contradictory  a  people? 


62 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE    AMERICAN    WOMAN 

THE  most  remarkable  feature  of 
America  is  the  women.  Divest  your 
mind  of  any  woman  you  know  in  order 
to  prepare  yourself  to  receive  my  impres- 
sions. To  begin  with,  the  American 
woman  ranks  with  her  husband;  indeed, 
she  is  his  superior  in  that  all  men  ren- 
der her  homage  and  deference.  It  is 
accounted  a  point  of  chivalry  to  stand  as 
the  defender  of  the  weaker  sex.  The 
American  girl  is  educated  with  the  boys 
in  the  public  school,  grows  up  with  them, 
and  studies  their  studies,  that  she  may  be 
their  intellectual  equal,  and  there  is  a 
strong  party,  led  by  masculine  women, 
who  contend  for  complete  political  rights 

63 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


for  women.  In  some  States  they  vote, 
and  in  nearly  all  may  be  elected  to 
boards  of  various  kinds  and  to  minor 
offices.  The  Government  departments 
are  rilled  with  women  clerks,  and  all, 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  are  equal ; 
hence,  it  is  a  difficult  matter  to  find  a 
native-born  American  who  will  become 
a  servant.  They  all  aspire  to  be  ladies, 
and  even  aliens  become  salesladies,  cook 
ladies,  laundry  ladies.  They  are  on  their 
dignity,  and  able  to  protect  it  from  any 
point  of  attack. 

The  lower  classes  are  particularly  un- 
interesting, for  they  have  no  individual- 
ity, and  ape  the  class  above  them,  the  re- 
sult being  a  cheap,  ludicrous  imitation 
of  a  lady — an  absurd  abstraction.  The 
women  of  the  lower  classes  who  are  un- 
married work  in  shops,  factories,  and  res- 
taurants, often  in  situations  the  reverse 
of  sanitary;  yet  prefer  this  to  good  situa- 
64 


THE    AMERICAN    WOMAN 


tions  in  families  as  servants,  service  being 
beneath  their  dignity  and  tending  to  dis- 
turb the  balance  of  equality.  I  doubt  if 
a  native-born  woman  would  permit  her- 
self to  be  called  a  servant;  indeed,  all  the 
servants  are  Irish,  Swedes,  Norwegians, 
French,  German,  or  negroes;  the  Amer- 
ican girls  fill  the  factories  and  the  sweat- 
shops of  the  great  cities.  When  I  refer 
these  girls  to  the  lower  classes  it  is 
merely  to  classify  them,  as  morally  and 
intellectually  they  are  sometimes  the 
equal  of  the  higher  classes.  The  middle- 
class  women  or  girls  are  an  attractive 
type,  well  educated  and  often  beautiful. 
You  obtain  an  idea  of  them  in  the  great 
shops  and  bazaars  of  the  great  cities, 
where  they  fill  every  conceivable  posi- 
tion and  receive  from  five  to  six  dollars 
per  week. 

But  it  is  with  the  higher  classes  that 
you  will  be  most  interested,  and  when  I 

65 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


say  that  the  American  girl,  the  product 
of  the  first  families,  is  at  once  beautiful, 
refined,  cultured,  charming  physically 
and  mentally,  I  have  but  faintly  ex- 
pressed it;  yet  the  most  pronounced  char- 
acteristic is  their  "daring,"  or  temerity. 
There  is  no  word  exactly  to  coverJt.  I 
frequently  met  women  at  dinners. \With 
few  exceptions,  it  appears  impossible  for 
the  American  girl  to  take  one  of  our 
race,  an  Oriental,  seriously.  She  can  not 
conceive  that  he  max  be  a  man  of  intelli- 
gence and  education)  and  I  can  not  bet- 
ter describe  her  than  to  sketch  in  its  detail 
a  dinner  to  which  I  was  invited  by  the 

—  at  Washington.    The  invitation  was 
engraved  on  a  small  card  and  read  "The 

—  and  Mrs.  —    -  request  the  honor  of 
the  presence  of  the  -      -  at  dinner  on 
Wednesday  at  eight  o'clock,  etc."    I  im- 
mediately sent  my  valet  with  an  accept- 
ance   and    a    basket   of    orchids    to    the 

66 


THE    AMERICAN    WOMAN 


hostess,  this  being  the  mode  among  the 
men  who  are  au  fait. 

A  week  later  I  went  to  the  dinner,  and 
was  taken  up  to  the  dressing-room  for 
men,  where  I  found  a  dozen  or  more,  all 
in  the  conventional  evening  dress  I  have 
described — now  with  tails,  it  being  a 
ladies'  affair.  In  a  corner  was  a  table, 
and  by  it  stood  a  negro,  also  in  a  dress 
suit,  identical  with  that  of  the  others.  I 
was  cordially  greeted  by  a  guest,  who 
said,  "Let  me  introduce  you  to  our 
American  minister  to  Ijiji  and  Zanzi- 
bar," and  he  presented  me  to  the  tall 
negro,  who  was  turning  out  some  bot- 
tled "cocktail."  I  shook  hands  with 
him,  and  he  laughed,  showing  a  set  of 
teeth  like  an  elephant's  tusks,  and  asked 
me  "what  I  would  have."  He  was  a 
servant  dealing  out  "appetizers,"  and 
this  was  an  American  joke.  The  per- 
petrator of  this  joke  was  a  minor  official 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


in  the  State  Department,  yet  the  entire 
party  apparently  considered  it  a  good 
joke.  Fortunately,  I  could  disguise  my 
real  feeling,  and  I  merely  relate  the  in- 
cident to  give  you  an  idea  of  the  sense 
of  the  proprieties  as  entertained  by  cer- 
tain Americans.  All  that  winter  the 
story  of  the  American  minister  to  Zan- 
zibar was  told  at  my  expense  without 
doubt. 

Having  been  "fortified,"  and  some  of 
the  men  took  two  or  three  "cocktails" 
before  they  became  "tuned  up,"  we  went 
down  to  the  drawing-room,  where  I  paid 
my  respects  to  the  host  and  hostess,  who 
stood  at  the  end  of  a  beautiful  room.  As 
I  approached  the  lady  greeted  me  with 
a  charming  smile,  extending  her  gloved 
hand  almost  on  a  direct  line  with  her 
face,  grasping  it  firmly,  not  shaking  it, 
saying,  "Very  kind  of  you,  -  — .  De- 
lighted, I  am  sure.  General" — turning 
68 


THE    AMERICAN    WOMAN 


to  her  husband — "you  know  the ,  of 

course,"  and  the  general  shook  my  hand 
as  he  would  a  pump-handle,  and  whis- 
pered, "Our  minister  to  Zanzibar  treated 
you  all  right,  eh?"  and  with  a  wink  inde- 
scribable, closing  the  right  eye  for  a  sec- 
ond, passed  me  on.  The  story  had 
got  down-stairs  before  me.  Americans 
of  the  official  class  have,  as  a  rule,  an 
absolute  lack  of  savoir  faire  and  social 
refinement;  lack  them  so  utterly  as  to 
become  comical. 

I  now  joined  other  groups  of  officers 
and  officials,  there  being  about  thirty 
guests,  half  of  whom  were  ladies.  The 
latter  were  all  in  what  is  termed  full 
dress.  Why  "full"  I  do  not  know.  Here 
you  see  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
features  of  American  life — the  dress  of 
women.  The  Americans  make  claim  to 
being  among  the  most  modest,  the  most 
religious,  the  most  proper  people  in  the 
6  69 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


world,  yet  the  appearance  of  the  ladies 
at  many  public  functions  is  beyond  be- 
lief. All  the  women  in  this  house  were 
beautiful  and  covered  with  jewels.  They 
wore  gowns  in  the  French  court  fashion, 
with  trains  a  yard  or  two  in  length,  but 
the  upper  part  cut  so  low  that  a  large 
portion  of  the  neck  and  shoulders  was 
exposed.  I  was  embarrassed  beyond  ex- 
pression; such  an  exhibition  in  China 
could  only  be  made  by  a  certain  class. 
These  matrons  were  of  the  highest  re- 
spectability. This  remarkable  custom  of 
a  strange  people,  who  deluge  China 
with  missionaries  from  every  sect  under 
the  sun  and  at  home  commit  the  grossest 
solecisms,  is  universal,  and  not  thought 
of  as  improper.  There  was  not  much 
opportunity  for  introspective  analysis, 
yet  I  could  not  but  believe  that  such  a 
custom  must  have  its  moral  effect  upon  a 
nation  in  the  long  run. 
70 


THE    AMERICAN    WOMAN 


It  was  a  mystery  to  me  how  the  upper 
part  of  some  of  the  gowns  was  sup- 
ported. In  some  instances  there  was  no 
strap  over  the  shoulders,  the  upper  third 
of  these  alabaster  torsos  and  arms  being 
absolutely  naked,  save  for  a  band  of 
pearls,  diamonds,  or  other  gems,  of  a  size 
rarely  seen  in  the  Orient;  but  I  learned 
later  that  the  bone  or  steel  corset,  which 
molds  the  form,  constituted  the  support 
of  the  gown.  I  gradually  became  habit- 
uated to  the  custom,  and  did  not  notice 
it.  My  friend  -  — ,  an  ajtist  of  repute, 
explained  that  it  all  depends  on  the  point 
of  view.  "Our  people  are  essentially 
artistic,"  he  said.  "There  is  nothing 
more  beautiful  than  the  divine  female 
contour;  the  American  women  realize 
this,  and  sacrifice  themselves  at  the  altar 
of  art."  Yet  the  Americans  are  such 
jokers  that  exactly  what  my  friend  had  in 
mind  it  was  difficult  to  arrive  at. 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


After  being  presented  to  these  mar- 
velously  arrayed  ladies  we  passed  into 
the  dining-room,  where  I  found  myself 
with  one  of  the  most  charming  of  divin- 
ities, a  woman  famous  for  her  wit  and 
literary  success.  I  have  described  the 
typical  dinner,  so  I  need  not  repeat  my 
words.  My  companion  held  the  same 
extraordinary  attitude  toward  me  that 
all  American  women  do;  amused,  half 
laughing,  refusing  absolutely  to  take  me 
seriously,  and  probing  me  with  so  many 
absurd  questions  that  I  was  forced  to 
ask  some  very  pointed  ones,  which  only 
succeeded  in  making  her  laugh.  The 
conversation  proceeded  something  as  fol- 
lows: "I  am  charmed  that  I  have  fallen 
to  your  Highness."  "Equally  charmed," 
I  replied;  "but  my  rank  does  not  admit 
the  adjective  you  do  me  the  honor  to  ap- 
ply." "No?"  was  the  answer.  "Well, 
I'll  wager  you  anything  that  when  the 
72 


THE    AMERICAN    WOMAN 


butler  pours  your  wine  in  the  first  course 
he  will  call  you  Count,  and  in  the  next 
Prince.  You  see,  they  become  exhil- 
arated as  the  dinner  progresses.  But  tell 
me,  how  many  wives  have  you  in  China, 
you  look  very  wicked?"  Imagine  this! 
But  I  rallied,  and  replied  that  I  had  none 
— a  statement  received  with  incredulity. 
Her  next  question  was,  "Have  you  ever 
been  a  highbinder?"  Ministers  of  grace! 
and  this  from  a  people  who  profess  to 
know  more  than  any  nation  on  earth!  I 
explained  that  a  highbinder  ranked  with 
a  professional  murderer  in  this  country, 
whereupon  she  again  laughed,  and,  turn- 
ing to  General  -  — ,  in  a  loud  voice  said, 
"General,  I  have  been  calling  the  - 
a  highbinder,"  at  which  the  company 
laughed  at  my  expense.  In  China,  as 
you  know,  a  guest  or  a  host  would  have 
killed  himself  rather  than  commit  so 
gross  a  solecism ;  but  this  is  America. 

73 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


The  second  course  was  oysters  served 
in  the  shell,  and  my  companion,  assum- 
ing that  I  had  never  seen  an  oyster 
[ignorant  that  our  fathers  ate  oysters 
thousands  of  years  before  America  was 
heard  of  and  when  the  Anglo-Saxon  was 
living  in  a  cave],  in  a  confidential  and 
engaging  whisper  remarked,  "This,  your 
'Highness,'  is  the  only  animal  we  eat 
alive."  "Why  alive?"  I  asked,  looking 
as  innocent  as  possible;  "why  not  kill 
them?"  "Oh,  the  Society  for  the  Pre- 
vention of  Cruelty  to  Animals  will  not 
permit  it,"  was  her  reply.  "You  see,  if 
they  are  swallowed  alive  they  are  imme- 
diately suffocated,  but  if  you  cut  them 
up  they  suffer  horribly  while  the  soup  is 
being  served.  How  large  a  one  do  you 
think  you  can  swallow?"  Fancy  the 
daring  of  a  young  girl  to  joke  with  a 
man  twice  her  age  in  this  way!  I  did  not 
undeceive  her,  and  allowed  her  to  en- 
74 


THE    AMERICAN    WOMAN 


lighten  me  on  various  subjects  of  con- 
temporaneous interest.  "It's  so  strange 
that  the  Chinese  never  study  mathemat- 
ics," she  next  remarked.  "Why,  all  our 
public  schools  demand  higher  mathe- 
matics, and  in  the  fourth  grade  you  could 
not  find  a  child  but  could  square  the  cir- 
cle." 

In  this  manner  this  volatile  young 
savage  entertained  me  all  through  the 
dinner,  utterly  superficial  herself,  yet 
possessed  of  a  singular  sharpness  and  wit, 
mostly  at  my  expense;  yet  she  was  so 
charming  I  forgave  her.  There  is  no 
denying  that  you  become  enraged,  in- 
sulted, chagrined  by  these  women,  who, 
however,  by  a  look,  dispel  your  annoy- 
ance. I  do  not  understand  it.  I  found 
that  while  an  author  of  a  novel  she  was 
grossly  ignorant  of  the  literature  of  her 
own  country,  yet  she  possessed  that  con- 
summate American  froth  by  which  she 

75 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


could  convince  the  average  person  that 
she  w^is  brilliant  to  the  point  of  scintilla- 
tion.^ I  fancy  that  any  keen,  well-edu- 
cated woman  must  have  seen  that  I  was 
laughing  at  her,  yet  so  inborn  was  her 
belief  that  a  Chinaman  must  be  an  im- 
becile that  she  was  ever  joking  at  my 
expense.  The  last  story  she  told  me  illus- 
trates the  peculiar  fancy  for  joking  these 
women  possess.  I  had  been  describing 
a  storm  at  Manchester-by-the-Sea  and  the 
splendor  of  the  ocean.  "Did  you  see  the 
tea-leaves?"  she  asked,  solemnly.  "No," 
I  replied.  "That  is  strange,"  she  said. 
"I  fear  you  are  not  very  observing.  After 
every  storm  the  tea-leaves  still  wash  up 
all  along  Massachusetts  Bay,"  alluding 
to  the  fact  that  loads  of  tea  on  ships  were 
tossed  over  by  the  Americans  during  the 
quarrel  with  England  before  the  Revo- 
lution. 

The  daring  of  the  American  woman 
76 


THE    AMERICAN    WOMAN 


impressed  me.  This  same  lady  asked  me 
not  to  remain  with  the  men  to  smoke 
but  go  on  the  veranda  with  her,  where 
tete-a-tete  she  produced  a  gold  cigarette- 
case  and  offered  me  a  cigarette.  This  I 
found  not  uncommon.  American  women 
of  the  fast  sets  drink  at  the  clubs;  an 
insidious  drink — the  "high-ball" — is  a 
common  one,  yet  I  never  saw  a  woman 
under  the  influence  of  wine  or  liquor. 
The  amount  of  both  consumed  in  Amer- 
ica is  amazing.  The  consumption  per 
head  in  the  United  States  for  beer  alone 
is  ten  and  a  half  gallons  for  each  of  the 
eighty  millions.  My  friend,  a  prohi- 
bitionist, a  member  of  a  political  party 
whose  object  is  to  ruin  the  wine  industry 
of  the  world,  put  it  stronger,  and,  backed 
by  facts,  said  that  if  the  wine,  beer, 
whisky,  gin,  and  alcoholic  drinks  of  all 
kinds  and  the  tea  and  coffee  drank  yearly 
by  the  Americans  could  be  collected  it 

77 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


would  make  a  lake  two  miles  square  and 
ten  feet  deep.  The  alcoholic  drinks  alone 
if  collected  would  fill  a  canal  one  hun- 
dred miles  long,  one  hundred  feet  wide, 
and  ten  feet  deep.  May  their  saints 
propitiate  this  insatiate  thirst! 

It  would  amuse  you  to  hear  the  Amer- 
ican women  of  literary  tendency  boast  of 
their  schools,  yet  when  educational  facil- 
ities are  considered  the  average  Amer- 
ican is  ignorant.  They  are  educated  in 
lines.  Thus  a  girl  graduate  will  speak 
French  with  a  good  accent,  or  she  will 
converse  in  Milwaukee  German.  She 
can  prove  her  statement  in  conic  sections 
or  algebra,  but  when  it  comes  to  actual 
knowledge  she  is  deficient.  This  is  due 
to  the  ignorance  of  the  teachers  in  the 
public  schools  and  their  lack  of  inborn 
culture.  No  better  test  of  the  futility  of 
the  American  public-school  education 
can  be  seen  than  the  average  girl  product 
78 


THE    AMERICAN    WOMAN 


of  the  public  school  of  the  lower  class 
in  a  city  like  Chicago  or  New  York. 
/Americans  affect  to  despise  Chinese 
methods  because  the  Chinese  girl  or  boy 
is  not  crammed  with  a  thousand  thoughts 
of  no  relative  value.  China  has  existed 
thousands  of  years ;  her  people  are  happy ; 
happiness  and  content  are  the  chief  vir- 
tues, and  if  China  is  ever  overthrown  it 
will  be  not  because,  as  the  Americans 
put  it,  she  is  behind  the  times,  but  be- 
cause the  fever  of  unrest  and  the  craze 
for  riches  has  become  a  contagion  which 
will  react  upon  her.  The  development 
of  China  is  normal,  that  of  America  hys- 
terical.j  Our  growth  has  been  along  the 
line  of  peace;  that  of  other  nations  has 
been  entirely  opposed  to  their  own  re- 
ligious teaching,  showing  it  to  be  farcical 
and  pure  sophistry. 

If  I  should  tell  you  how  many  Amer- 
ican   women    asked    me    why    Chinese 

79 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


women  bandage  their  feet  you  would  be 
amazed;  yet  every  one  of  these  submit- 
ted to  and  practised  a  deformity  that  has 
seriously  affected  the  growth  and  devel- 
opment of  the  race.  I  am  no  iconoclast, 
but  listen  to  the  story  of  the  American 
woman  who,  with  one  hand,  deforms  her 
waist  in  the  most  barbarous  fashion, 
while  waving  the  other  in  horror  at  her 
Chinese  sister  with  the  bound  feet. 
American  women  change  their  fashions 
twice  a  year  or  more.  Fashions  are  in 
the  hands  of  the  middle  classes,  and  the 
highest  lady  in  the  land  is  completely  at 
their  mercy;  to  disobey  the  mandates  of 
fashion  is  to  become  ridiculous.  The 
fashion  is  set  in  Paris  and  various  cities 
by  men  and  women  who  have  skilled 
artists  to  draw  patterns  and  paint  pic- 
tures showing  the  new  mode.  These  are 
published  in  certain  papers  and  issued  by 
millions,  republished  in  America,  and  no 
80 


THE    AMERICAN    WOMAN 


woman  here  would  have  the  temerity  to 
ignore  them.  The  laws  of  the  Medes 
and  Persians  are  not  more  inexorable. 

It  is  not  a  suggestion  but  an  order,  a 
fiat,  a  command,  so  we  see  this  free  na- 
tion really  truckling  to  or  dominated  by 
a  class  of  tradesmen.  The  object  of  the 
change  of  style  is  to  create  a  sale  for  new 
goods,  give  work  for  laborers,  and  enable 
the  producer  to  reach  the  pocketbook  of 
the  rich  man;  but  the  "fashions"  have 
become  so  fixed,  so  thoroughly  a  na- 
tional feature,  that  they  affect  rich  and 
poor,  and  we  have  the  spectacle  of  every 
woman  studying  these  guides  and  con- 
forming to  them  with  a  servility  beyond 
belief.  I  once  said  to  a  lady,  "The  Chi- 
nese lady  dresses  richer  than  the  Amer- 
ican, but  her  styles  have  been  very  much 
the  same  for  thousands  of  years,"  but  I 
believe  she  doubted  it.  It  would  be 
futile,  indeed  impossible,  for  me  to  ex- 
Si 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


plain  the  extravagances  of  American 
fashion.  Their  own  press  and  stage  use 
it  as  a  standard  butt.  At  the  present  time 
tablets  or  plates  of  fashion  insist  upon 
an  outline  which  shows  the  form  com- 
pletely, the  antipodes  of  a  Chinese  wom- 
an; and  this  is  intensified  by  some  of  the 
women  who,  when  in  the  street,  grasp 
the  skirt  and  in  an  ingenious  way  wrap 
it  about  so  that  the  outline  of  the  Amer- 
ican divinity  is  sufficiently  well  defined 
to  startle  one.  Such  a  trick  in  China 
could  but  originate  with  the  demi- 
monde, yet  it  is  taken  up  by  certain  of 
the  Americans  who  are  constantly  seek- 
ing for  variety.  There  can  be  no  ques- 
tion but  that  the  middle-class  fashion 
designer  revenges  himself  upon  the  beau 
monde.  They  will  not  receive  him  so- 
cially, so  he  forces  them  to  wear  his 
clothes. 

Some  years  ago  women  were  made  to 
82 


THE   AMERICAN    WOMAN 


wear  "hoops,"  pictures  of  which  I  have 
seen  in  old  publications.  Imagine,  if  you 
can,  a  bird-cage  three  feet  high  and  four 
feet  across,  formed  of  bone  of  the  whale 
or  some  metal.  This  was  worn  beneath 
the  dress,  expanding  it  on  either  side  so 
that  it  was  difficult  to  approach  a  lady. 
A  later  order  was  given  to  wear  a  camel- 
like  "hump"  at  the  base  of  the  vertebral 
column,  which  was  called  the  "bustle" 
— a  contrivance  calculated  to  unnerve 
the  wearer,  not  to  speak  of  the  looker-on ; 
yet  the  American  woman  adopted  it,  dis- 
torted her  body,  and  aped  the  gait  of  the 
kangaroo,  the  form  being  called  the 
"Grecian  bend."  This  lasted  six  months 
or  more;  first  adopted  by  the  aristocracy, 
then  by  the  common  people,  and  by  the 
time  the  latter  had  it  well  in  hand  the 
bon  ton  had  cast  it  aside  and  were  trying 
something  else. 

A  close   study  of   this   mad   dressing 

83 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


shows  that  there  is  always  a  "hump."  At 
one  time  it  went  all  around;  later  ap- 
peared only  behind,  like  an  excrescence 
on  a  bilbol-tree.  At  the  present  time  the 
designer  has  drawn  his  picture  showing 
it  as  a  pendent  bag  from  the  "shirt- 
waist," like  the  pouch  of  the  bird  pelican. 
A  few  years  ago  the  designer,  in  a  de- 
lirium, placed  the  humps  on  the  tops  of 
the  sleeves,  then  snatched  them  away  and 
tipped  them  upside  down.  Finally  he 
appeared  to  go  utterly  mad  with  the  de- 
sire to  humiliate  the  woman,  and  cre- 
ated a  fashion  that  entailed  dragging  the 
skirt  on  the  ground  from  one  to  two 
feet. 

Did  the  American  woman  resent  the 
insult;  did  she  refuse  to  adopt  a  cus- 
tom not  only  disgusting  but  really  filthy, 
one  that  a  Chinese  lady  would  have 
died  rather  than  have  accepted?  By  no 
means ;  she  seized  upon  it  with  the  ardor 
84 


THE   AMERICAN    WOMAN 


of  a  child  with  a  new  toy,  and  for  a  year 
the  side-paths  of  the  great  cities  of  the 
country  were  swept  by  women's  skirts, 
clouds  of  dust  following  them.  The 
press  took  up  the  question,  but  without 
effect;  the  fashion  dragged  its  nause- 
ating and  frightful  course  from  rich  and 
poor,  and  I  was  told  by  an  official  that  it 
was  impossible  to  stop  it  or  to  force  a 
glimmer  of  reason  into  the  minds  of  these 
women.  Then  they  gave  it  up,  and 
passed  a  law  making  it  a  statutory  offense, 
with  heavy  fines,  for  any  one  to  "ex- 
pectorate" on  the  sidewalk  or  anywhere 
else  where  the  saliva  could  be  swept  up 
by  the  trains  of  the  women  of  nearly  all 
classes  who  followed  the  fashion.  The 
American  woman,  as  I  have  said,  looks 
askance  at  the  footgear  of  the  Chinese — 
high,  warm,  dry,  sanitary,  yet  revels  in 
creations  which  cramp  the  feet  and  dis- 
tort the  anatomy.  The  shoes  are  made 

7  85 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


of  leather,  inflexible,  pointed;  and  to 
enable  them  to  deceive  the  men  into  the 
belief  that  they  have  high  insteps  (a  sign 
of  good  blood  here)  the  women  wear 
stilt-like  heels,  which  throw  the  foot  for- 
ward and  elevate  the  heel  from  two  to 
three  inches  above  the  ground. 

But  all  this  is  but  a  bagatelle  to  the 
fashions  in  deformity  which  we  find 
among  nearly  all  American  women. 
There  are  throughout  the  country  num- 
bers of  large  manufactories  which  make 
"corsets"  —  a  peculiar  waist  and  lung 
compressor,  used  by  nearly  every  woman 
in  America.  These  men  are  as  dogmatic 
as  the  designers  of  the  fashion-plates. 
They  also  issue  plates  or  guides  showing 
new  changes,  and  the  women,  like  sheep, 
adopt  them.  The  American  woman  be- 
lieves that  a  narrow  waist  enhances  her 
beauty,  and  the  corset-maker  works  upon 
the  national  weakness  and  builds  crea- 
86 


THE    AMERICAN    WOMAN 


tjons  that  put  to  shame  and  ridicule  the 
bound  feet  of  the  aristocratic  Chinese 
woman.  The  corset  is  a  lace  and  ribbon- 
decorated  armor,  made  either  of  steel  ribs 
or  whale-bone,  which  fits  the  waist  and 
clings  to  the  hips.  It  is  laced  up,  and 
the  degree  of  tightness  depends  upon  the 
will  or  nerve  of  the  wearer.  It  com- 
presses the  heart  and  lungs,  and  wearing 
it  is  a  most  barbarous  custom — a  telling 
argument  against  the  assumption  of  high 
intelligence  on  the  part  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, who,  in  this  respect,  rank  with  the 
flat-headed  Indians  of  the  northwest 
American  coast,  whose  heads  I  have  seen 
in  their  medical  offices  side  by  side  with 
a  diagram  showing  the  abnormal  condi- 
tions caused  by  the  corset. 

A  year  ago  the  fiat  went  forth  that 
the  American  woman  must  have  wide 
hips.  Presto!  there  appeared  especially 
devised  machinery,  advertised  in  all  the 

8? 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


journals,  accomplishing  the  condition 
for  those  whom  nature  had  not  well 
endowed.  Now  the  dressmaker  has  de- 
cided that  they  must  be  narrow-hipped, 
and  half  a  million  dollars  in  false  hips, 
rubber  pads,  and  other  properties  are 
cast  aside.  No  extravaganza  is  too  absurd 
for  these  people  who  are  abject  slaves  to 
the  whimsicalities  of  the  designer,  who 
is  a  wag  in  his  way,  as  has  been  well 
shown  in  a  story  told  to  me.  The  de- 
signers for  a  famous  man  dressmaker  in 
Paris  had  a  habit  of  taking  sketches  of 
the  latest  creations  to  their  club  meetings. 
One  evening  a  clever  caricaturist  took  a 
caricature  of  a  fashion  showing  a  woman 
with  enormous  and  outlandish  sleeves. 
It  created  a  laugh.  "As  impossible  as  it 
is,"  said  the  artist,  "I  will  wager  a  dinner 
that  if  I  present  it  seriously  to  a  certain 
fashion  paper  they  will  take  it  up."  This 
is  said  to  be  the  history  of  the  "big- 


THE   AMERICAN    WOMAN 


sleeve"  fashion  that  really  amazed  the 
Americans  themselves. 

The  customs  of  women  here  are  so  at 
variance  with  those  of  China  that  they 
are  not  readily  understood. \  Our  ways 
are  those  culled  from  a  civilization  of 
thousands  of  years;  theirs  from  one  just 
beginning;  yet  they  have  the  temerity  to 
speal^pf  China  as  effete  and  behind  the 
times./  In  writing,  the  women  affect  the 
English  round  hand  and  write  across 
from  left  to  right,  and  then  beginning  at 
the  left  of  the  page  again.  They  are 
fond  of  perfumes,  especially  the  lower 
classes,  and  display  a  barbaric  taste  for 
jewels.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  see  the 
wife  of  a  wealthy  man  wear  half  a  mil- 
lion pounds  sterling  in  diamonds  or 
rubies  at  the  opera.  I  was  told  that  one 
lady  wore  a  $5,000  diamond  in  her  garter. 
The  utterly  strange  and  contradictory 
customs  of  these  women  are  best  observed 

89 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


at  the  beach  and  bath.  In  China  if  a 
woman  is  modest  she  is  so  at  all  times; 
but  this  is  not  true  with  some  Americans, 
who  appear  to  have  the  desire  to  attract 
attention,  especially  that  of  men,  by  an 
appeal  to  the  beautiful  in  nature  and 
art;  at  least  this  is  the  impression  the 
unprejudiced  looker-on  gains  by  a  so- 
journ in  the  great  cities  and  fashionable 
resorts.  If  you  happen  to  be  riding 
horseback,  or  walking  in  the  street  with 
a  lady,  and  any  accident  occurs  to  her 
costume  whereby  her  neck,  her  leg,  or 
her  ankle  is  exposed,  she  will  be  morti- 
fied beyond  expression;  yet  the  night 
previous  you  might  have  sat  in  the  box 
with  her  at  the  opera,  when  her  decollete 
gown  had  made  her  the  mark  for  hun- 
dreds of  lorgnettes.  Again,  this  lady  the 
next  morning  might  bathe  with  me  at 
the  beach  and  lie  on  the  sand  basking  in 
the  sun  like  a  sireji  in  a  costume  that 
90 


THE   AMERICAN    WOMAN 


would  arrest  the  attention  of  a  St.  An- 
thony. 

Let  me  describe  such  a  costume:  A 
pair  of  skin-tight  black  stockings,  then  a 
pair  of  tights  of  black  silk  and  a  flimsy 
black  skirt  that  comes  just  to  the  knee; 
a  black  silk  waist,  armless,  and  as  low  in 
the  neck  as  the  moral  law  permits,  be- 
neath which,  to  preserve  her  contour,  is 
a  water-proof  corset.  Limbs,  to  expose 
which  an  inch  on  the  street  were  a  crime, 
are  blazoned  to  the  world  at  Newport, 
Cape  May,  Atlantic  City,  and  other  re- 
sorts, and  often  photographed  and  shown 
in  the  papers.  To  explain  this  manifest 
contradiction  would  be  beyond  the  pow- 
ers of  an  Oriental,  had  he  the  prescience 
of  the  immortal  Confucius  and  the  divi- 
nation of  a  Mahomet  and  Hilliel  com- 
bined. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  SUPERSTITIONS  OF  THE  AMERICANS 

AMONG  the  many  topics  I  have  dis- 
cussed with  Americans,  our  alleged  su- 
perstitions, or  our  belief  in  so-called 
dragons,  genii,  ghosts,  etc.,  seem  to  have 
made  the  deepest  impression.  A  charm- 
ing American  woman,  whom  I  met  at  the 
Embassy  at  dinner,  told  me  with  se- 
riousness that  our  people  may  be  intelli- 
gent, but  the  fact  that  in  San  Francisco 
and  Los  Angeles  they  at  certain  times 
drag  through  the  streets  a  dragon  five 
hundred  feet  long  to  exorcise  the  evil 
spirits,  showed  that  the  Chinese  were 
grossly  superstitious.  If  I  had  told  my 
companion  that  she  was  the  victim  of  a 
thousand  superstitions,  she  would  have 
taken  it  as  an  affront,  because,  according 
92 


THE     SUPERSTITIONS     OF     THE     AMERICANS 

to  American  usage,  it  is  not  proper  to 
dispute  with  a  lady.  The  Americans  are 
the  most  superstitious  people  in  the 
world.  They  will  not  sit  down  to  a  din- 
ner-table when  there  are  thirteen  per- 
sons. No  hostess  would  attempt  such  a 
thing,  the  belief  being  general  that  some 
one  of  the  guests  would  die  within  a 
year.  I  was  a  guest  at  a  dinner-party 
when  a  lady  suddenly  remarked,  "We 
are  thirteen."  Several  of  the  guests  were 
evidently  much  annoyed,  and  the  hostess, 
a  most  pleasing  woman,  apologized,  and 
replied  that  she  had  invited  fourteen,  but 
one  guest  had  failed  her.  It  was  appar- 
ent that  something  must  be  done,  and 
this  was  cleverly  solved  by  the  hostess 
sending  for  her  mother,  who  joined  the 
party,  and  the  dinner  proceeded.  I  do 
not  think  all  the  guests  believed  in  this 
absurd  superstition,  but  they  were  all 
very  uncomfortable.  I  do  not  believe  I 

93 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


met  a  society  woman  in  Washington  or 
New  York  who  would  walk  through 
a  cemetery  or  graveyard  at  midnight 
alone.  I  asked  several  ladies  if  they 
would  do  this,  and  all  were  horrified  at 
the  idea,  though  strongly  denying  any 
belief  in  ghosts  or  spirits. 

In  nearly  every  American  city  one  or 
more  houses  may  be  found  haunted  by 
ghosts,  which  Americans  believe  have 
made  the  places  so  disagreeable  that  the 
houses  have  been  in  consequence  de- 
serted. So  well-defined  is  the  super- 
stition, and  so  recurrent  are  the  beliefs 
in  ghosts  and  spirits,  that  the  best-edu- 
cated people  have  found  it  necessary  to 
establish  a  society,  called  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research,  in  order  to  demon- 
strate that  ghosts  are  not  possible^  I 
believe  I  am  not  overstepping  the  bounds 
when  I  say  that  this  yainglorjfuis  people, 
who  claim  to  have  the  finest  public- 
94 


THE     SUPERSTITIONS     OF     THE     AMERICANS 

school  system  in  the  world,  are,  consider- 
ing their  advantages,  the  most  super- 
stitious of  all  the  white  racesy^Out  of 
perhaps  thirty  men,  whom  I  asked,  not 
one  was  willing  to  say  he  could  pass 
through  a  graveyard  at  night  without 
fear  at  heart,  an  undefined  nervous  feel- 
ing, due  to  innate  superstitioiy  The 
middle-class  woman  who  stumbles  up- 
stairs considers  it  to  mean  that  she  will 
not  marry.  To  break  a  mirror,  or  receive 
as  a  present  a  knife,  also  means  bad  luck. 
Many  people  wear  amulets,  safe-guards, 
and  good-luck  stones.  Several  millions 
of  the  Catholic  sect  wear  a  charm,  which 
they  think  will  save  them  from  sudden 
death.  All  Catholics  believe  that  some 
of  their  churches  own  the  bones  of  saints, 
which  have  the  power  to  give  them 
health  and  other  good  things.  Many 
Americans  wear  the  seed  of  the  horse- 
chestnut,  and  many  others  wear  lucky 

95 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


coins.  Belief  in  the  luck  of  the  four-leaf 
clover,  instead  of  that  with  three  leaves, 
is  so  strong  that  people  will  spend  hours 
in  hunting  for  one.  They  are  designed 
into  pins  and  certain  insignia,  and  used 
in  a  hundred  other  ways. 

But  more  remarkable  than  all  is  the 
old  horseshoe  superstition.  I  have  seen 
beautifully  gowned  ladies  stop  their 
driver,  descend  from  the  carriage,  and 
pick  up  such  a  shoe  and  carry  it  home, 
telling  me  that  they  never  failed  to  pick 
up  one,  as  it  brought  good  luck;  yet  this 
lady  laughed  at  our  dragon!  In  the 
country,  horseshoes  are  commonly  seen 
over  the  doors  of  stables,  and  even  of 
houses.  These  same  people  once  hung 
women  for  witchcraft,  and  slaughtered 
women  for  persisting  in  certain  religious 
beliefs.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
a  well-known  man,  who  stated  that  he 
had  the  power  of  the  "evil  eye."  In- 
96 


THE     SUPERSTITIONS     OF     THE     AMERICANS 

numerable  people  believe  the  paw  of  an 
animal  called  the  rabbit  to  contain  sov- 
ereign good  luck.  They  carry  it  about, 
and  can  buy  it  in  shops.  Indeed,  I 
could  fill  a  volume,  much  less  a  letter, 
with  the  absurd  superstitions  of  these 
people  who  send  women  to  China  to  con- 
vert the  "Heathen  Chinee,"  who  may  be 
"peculiar,"  as  Mr.  Harte  states  in  his 
poem;  but  the  Chinaman  certainly  has 
not  the  marvelous  variety  of  superstitions 
possessed  by  the  American,  who  does  not 
allow  cats  about  rooms  where  there  are 
infants,  fearing  that  they  will  suck  the 
child's  breath;  who  believe  that  certain 
snakes  milk  cows,  and  that  mermen  are 
possible.  I  stood  in  a  tent  last  summer 
at  Atlantic  City — a  large  seaside  resort 
— and  watched  a  line  of  middle-class  peo- 
ple passing  to-  see  a  "Chinese  mermaid," 
of  the  kind  the  Japanese  manufacture  so 
cleverly.  It  was  to  be  seen  on  the  water. 

97 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


All,  so  far  as  I  could  judge,  accepted  it 
as  real.  So  much  for  the  influence  of 
the  American  public  school,  where  phys- 
iology is  taught. 


98 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE  AMERICAN  PRESS 

ONE  feature  of  American  life  is  so 
peculiar  that  I  fear  I  can  not  present  it 
to  you  clearly,  as  there  is  nothing  like 
it  under  the  sun.  I  refer  to  the  news- 
papers. If  such  an  institution  should 
appear  in  any  Oriental  country,  or  even 
in  Russia,  many  heads  would  fall  to 
the  ground  for  treason  or  gross  disre- 
spect to  the  power  of  the  throne.  The 
American  must  not  only  have  the  news 
of  his  neighbor,  but  the  news  of  the 
world  every  hour  in  the  day,  and  the 
newspapers  furnish  it.  In  the  villages 
they  appear  weekly,  in  the  towns  daily, 
in  the  great  cities  hourly,  boys  screaming 
their  names,  shouting  and  yelling  like 
demons.  Yesterday  beneath  the  window 

99 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


a  boy  screamed,  "The  Empress  of  China 
elopes  with  her  coachman!"  I  bought 
the  paper,  in  which  a  column  was  de- 
voted to  it.  Fancy  this  in  Pekin.  Shades 

of !    I  can  not  better  describe  these 

papers  than  to  say  they  have  absolute 
license  as  to  what  to  print,  this  freedom 
being  a  principle,  but  it  is  grossly  abused 
by  blackmailers.  The  papers  have  no 
respect  for  man,  woman,  or  child,  the 
President  or  the  Deity.  The  most  fla- 
grant attacks  are  made  upon  private  per- 
sons. Rarely  is  an  editor  shot  or  im- 
prisoned. The  President  may  be  called 
vile  names,  his  appearance  may  become 
the  butt  of  ridicule  in  opposition  papers, 
and  cartoonists,  employed  at  large  sal- 
aries, draw  insulting  pictures  of  him  and 
his  Cabinet.  One  would  think  that  the 
way  to  obtain  patronage  of  a  person 
would  be  to  praise  him,  but  this  would 
be  considered  an  orientalism.  The  real 
100 


THE    AMERICAN     PRESS 


way  to  secure  readers  in  America  is  to 
abuse,  insult,  and  outrage  private  feel- 
ings, the  argument  being  that  people  will 
buy  the  journal  to  see  what  is  said  about 
them.  All  the  American  press  is  not 
founded  upon  this  system  of  virtual 
blackmail.  There  are  respectable  pa- 
pers, conservative  and  honorable;  but  I 
believe  I  am  not  overstating  it  when  I 
say  that  every  large  city  has  at  least  one 
paper  where  the  secrets  of  a  family  and 
its  most  sacred  traditions  are  treated  as 
lawful  game. 

The  actual  heads  of  papers  have  often 
been  men  of  high  standing,  as  Horace 
Greeley,  Henry  J.  Raymond,  E.  L.  God- 
kin,  Henry  Watterson,  the  late  Charles 
A.  Dana,  James  Gordon  Bennett,  and 
William  Cullen  Bryant.  But  in  the 
modern  newspaper  the  man  in  control  is 
a  managing  editor,  whose  tenure  of  office 
depends  upon  his  keeping  ahead  of  all 

8  101 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


others.  The  press,  then,  with  its  tele- 
graphic connection  with  the  world,  with 
its  thousands  of  readers,  is  a  power,  and 
in  the  hands  of  a  man  of  small  mind  be- 
comes a  menace  to  civilization  and  easily 
drifts  into  blackmail.  This  is  displayed 
in  a  thousand  ways,  especially  in  politics. 
The  editor  desires  to  obtain  "influence," 
the  power  to  secure  places  for  his  favor- 
ites, and,  if  he  is  slighted,  he  intimates 
to  the  men  in  power,  "Appoint  my  can- 
didate or  I  will  attack  you."  This  is  a 
virtual  threat.  In  this  way  the  editor 
intimidates  the  office-holder.  I  was  in- 
formed by  a  good  authority  of  two  jour- 
nals of  standing  in  America  which 
he  knew  were  started  as  "blackmailing 
sheets";  and  certainly  the  license  of  the 
press  is  in  every  way  diabolical,  a  result 
of  the  American  dogma  of  free  speech. 
When  one  arrives  in  America  he  is  met 
with  dozens  of  representatives  of  the 
102 


THE    AMERICAN     PRESS 


press,  who  ask  a  thousand  and  one  per- 
sonal and  impertinent  questions,  which, 
if  one  does  not  answer,  one  is  attacked 
in  some  insidious  way.  One  man  I  know 
refused  to  listen  to  a  very  importunate 
newspaper  man,  and  was  congratulating 
himself  on  his  escape,  when  on  the  fol- 
lowing day  an  article  appeared  in  the 
paper  giving  several  libelous  pictures  of 
him,  the  object  being  to  show  that  he 
had  nothing  to  say  because  he  was  men- 
tally deficient.  He  appealed  to  the  ed- 
itor, but  was  told  that  his  only  recourse 
was  to  sue.  As  one  walks  down  the 
gangplank  of  a  ship  he  may  become  the 
mark  for  ten  or  fifteen  cameras,  which 
photograph  him  without  permission,  and 
whose  owners  will  "poke  fun"  at  his  re- 
sistance. 

As  a  news-collecting  medium  the  press 
of  the  United  States  is  a  magnificent  or- 
ganization. At  breakfast  you  receive 

103 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


the  news  of  the  whole  world — social,  dip- 
lomatic, criminal,  and  religious.  Meet- 
ings of  Congress  and  stories  of  private 
life  are  alike  all  served  up,  fully  illus- 
trated with  pictures  of  the  people  and 
events.  A  corner  is  devoted  to  children, 
another  to  women,  another  to  religious 
Americans,  and  a  little  sermon  is 
preached.  Then  there  are  suggestive 
pictures  for  the  man  about  town,  recipes 
for  the  cook,  weather  reports  for  the 
traveler,  a  story  for  the  romancer,  per- 
haps a  poem,  and  an  editorial  page, 
where  ideas  and  theories  are  promul- 
gated and  opinions  manufactured  on  all 
subjects,  ready  made  for  adoption  by 
the  reader,  who  in  many  instances  has 
his  thinking  done  for  him.  I  made  a 
test  of  this,  and  asked  a  number  of  men 
for  their  opinion  on  a  certain  subject, 
and  then  guessed  the  name  of  their  fa- 
vorite paper,  and  in  most  instances  was 
104 


THE    AMERICAN     PRESS 


correct.  They  all  claimed  that  they  took 
the  paper  because  it  agreed  with  their 
political  ideas;  but  I  am  confident  that 
the  reverse  is  true,  the  paper  having  in- 
sidiously trained  them  to  adopt  its  view. 
Here  we  see  where  the  power  of  one  man 
or  editor  comes  in,  and  worse  yet,  a 
nation  which  acquires  this  "newspaper 
habit,"  this  having  some  one  to  think  for 
it  by  machinery,  as  it  were,  will  lose  its 
mental  power,  its  facility  in  analysis.  I 
made  bold  to  suggest  this  to  a  prominent 
man,  but  he  merely  laughed.  As  a  whole, 
the  American  newspapers  are  valuable; 
they  are  the  real  educators  of  the  people, 
and  have  a  vast  influence.  For  this  rea- 
son there  should  be  some  restriction  im- 
posed on  them. 


105 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  AMERICAN  DOCTOR 

AT  a  dinner  at  Manchester  in  the  sum- 
mer I  had  as  my  vis-a-vis  a  delightful 
young  American,  who,  among  other 
things,  said  to  me:  "It  is  astonishing  to 
me  that  §o  many  of  your  people  live 
long,  considering  the  ignorance  of  your 
doctors."  I  assured  her  that  this  was 
merely  her  ppint  of  view,  and  that  we 
were  well  satisfied  with  our  doctors  or 
physicians.  I  wished  to  retaliate  by  tell- 
ing my  fair  companion  a  story  I  had 
heard  the  day  previous.  An  American 
physician  operated  upon  a  man  and  re- 
moved what  he  called  a  "cyst,"  which  he 
displayed  with  some  pride  to  a  doctor  of 
another  school.  "Why,  man,"  said  the 
106 


THE    AMERICAN     DOCTOR 


latter,  "that  isn't  a  cyst;  it's  the  man's 
kidney!" 

The  Americans  have  made  rapid  ad- 
vances in  medicine  and  surgery,  and  they 
have  some  extraordinary  physicians. 
From  two  to  four  years  of  study  com- 
pletes the  education  of  some  of  the  doc- 
tors, and  hundreds  are  turned  out  every 
year.  Some  are  of  the  old  and  regular 
school  of  medicine,  but  others  are  called 
homeopathic,  which  means  that  they 
give  small  doses  of  the  more  powerful 
medicines.  Then  there  are  those  who 
practise  in  both  schools.  Indeed,  in  no 
other  field  does  ignorance,  superstition, 
credulity,  and  lack  of  real  education  dis- 
play itself  as  among  the  American  doc- 
tors or  healers.  I  believe  I  could  fill  a 
volume  by  the  mere  enumeration  of  the 
diabolical  and  absurd  nostrums  offered 
by  knaves  to  heal  men  who  profess  to 
hold  in  ridicule  the  Chinese  doctors.  I 

107 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


mention  but  a  few,  and  when  I  tell  you, 
as  a  truth  beyond  cavil,  that  the  most  ex- 
traordinary of  these  healers,  the  most 
impossible,  have  the  largest  following, 
you  can  see  what  I  mean  by  the  credulity 
of  the  people  as  a  whole.  Christian  Sci- 
ence doctors  have  a  following  of  tens  of 
thousands.  They  combine  so-called  sci- 
ence with  religion;  leave  their  God  to 
cure  them  at  long  or  short  range  through 
the  medium  of  so-called  agents.  The 
head  of  this  faction  is  an  ignorant  but 
clever  woman,  who  has  turned  the  heads 
of  perhaps  thirty-three  and  a  third  per 
cent  of  the  American  women  whom  she 
has  come  in  contact  with. 

Then  come  the  faith  curists,  who  rely 
upon  faith  alone.  You  simply  are  to 
think  you  will  get  well.  Of  course,  many 
die  from  neglect.  As  an  illustration  of 
the  credulity  of  the  average  American, 
a  Christian  Science  healer  was  once  treat- 
108 


THE     AMERICAN     DOCTOR 


ing  a  sick  woman  from  a  distant  town, 
and  finally  the  patient  died.  When  the 
bill  was  presented  the  husband  said, 
"You  have  charged  for  treatment  two 
weeks  after  my  wife  died."  It  was  a 
fact  that  the  healer  had  been  treating  the 
woman  after  she  was  buried,  the  hus- 
band having  failed  to  give  notice  of  the 
death.  One  would  have  expected  the 
"healer"  to  be  thrown  into  confusion, 
but  far  from  it;  she  merely  replied,  "I 
thought  I  noticed  a  vacancy." 

Next  come  the  musical  curists,  who 
listen  to  thrills  of  sound,  a  big  organ 
being  the  doctor.  Then  there  is  the 
psychometric  doctor,  who  cures  by  spir- 
its. The  spirit  doctor  cures  in  the  same 
way.  The  palmist  professes  to  point  out 
how  to  avoid  the  ills  of  life.  Magnetic 
healers  have  hundreds  of  victims  in  every 
city.  Their  advertisements  in  the  jour- 
nals of  all  sorts  are  of  countless  kinds. 

109 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


Some  cure  at  short  hand,  some  miles  dis- 
tant from  the  patient.  They  are  equaled 
in  numbers  by  the  hypnotists,  or  hypnotic 
doctors,  who  profess  to  throw  their  pa- 
tients into  a  trance  and  cure  them  by  sug- 
gestion. I  heard  of  one  cure  in  which 
the  guileless  American  is  made  to  lie  in 
an  open  grave;  this  is  called  "the  return 
to  nature."  Again,  patients  are  cured 
by  being  buried  in  hot  mud  or  in  hot 
sand.  I  have  seen  a  salt-water  cure, 
where  patients  were  made  to  remain  in 
the  ocean  ten  hours  a  day.  The  plain 
water  cure  has  thousands  of  followers, 
with  hospitals  and  infirmaries,  where  the 
patient  is  bathed,  soaked,  filled,  washed, 
and  plunged  in  water  and  charged  a  high 
amount. 

Then  there  is  the  vegetarian  cure,  no 

meat  being  eaten ;  and  there  are  the  meat 

eaters,  who  use  no  vegetables.    There  are 

over  fifty  thousand  masseurs  and  osteo- 

no 


THE     AMERICAN     DOCTOR 


paths  in  the  country,  who  cure  by  baths 
and  rubbing.  You  may  have  a  bath  of 
milk,  water,  electricity,  or  alcohol,  or  a 
bath  of  any  description  under  the  sun, 
which  is  guaranteed  to  cure  any  and  all 
ailments.  Perhaps  the  most  extraordi- 
nary curists  are  the  color  doctors.  They 
have  rooms  filled  with  blue  and  other 
colors,  in  whose  rays  the  patient  victim 
or  the  victim  patient  sits,  "like  Patience 
on  a  monument."  I  could  not  begin  to 
give  you  an  enumeration  of  the  various 
kinds  of  electric  cures;  they  are  legion. 
But  the  most  amazing  class  comprises 
the  patent-medicine  men,  who  are  usu- 
ally not  doctors  at  all,  but  buy  from 
some  one  a  "cure"  and  then  advertise  it, 
spending  in  one  instance  which  I  inves- 
tigated one  million  dollars  a  year. 
Every  advantageous  wall,  stone,  or  cliff 
in  America  will  be  posted.  You  see 
the  name  at  every  turn,  and  the  gul- 

iii 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


lible   Americans   bite,   chew,   and   swal- 
low. 

It  is  not  overstating  facts  when  I  say 
that  three-fifths  of  the  people  buy  some 
of  these  patent  nostrums,  which  the  real 
medical  men  denounce,  showing  that  the 
masses  of  the  people  are  densely  igno- 
rant, the  victims  of  any  faker  who  may 
shout  his  wares  loud  enough.  In  China 
such  a  thing  would  be  impossible;  the 
block  would  stop  the  practise;  but,  my 
dear  -  — ,Qthe  Americans  assure  me 
China  is  a  thousand  years  behind  the 
times,  for  which  let  us  be  devoutly  thank- 
ful! I  have  not  enumerated  a  tenth  of 
the  kinds  of  doctors. who  prey  upon  these 
unfortunate  people.)  There  are  compa- 
nies of  them,  who  guarantee  to  cure  any- 
thing, and  skilfully  mulct  the  sick  of 
their  last  penny.  There  are  retreats  for 
the  unfortunate,  farms  for  deserted  in- 
fants, and  homes  for  unfortunate  women 
112 


THE    AMERICAN     DOCTOR 


carried  on  by  villains  of  both  sexes. 
There  are  traveling  doctors  who  go  from 
town  to  town,  who  cure  "while  you  wait," 
and  give  a  circus  while  talking  and  sell- 
ing their  cure;  and  in  nine  cases  out  of 
ten  the  nostrum  is  an  alcoholic  drink  dis- 
guised. 

In  no  land  under  the  sun  are  there  so 
many  ignorant  blatant  fakers  preying  on 
a  people,  and  in  no  land  do  you  find  so 
credulous  a  throng  as  in  America,  yet 
claiming  to  represent  the  cream  of  the 
intelligence  of  the  world ;  they  are  so 
easily  led  that  the  most  impossible  per- 
son, if  he  be  a  good  talker,  can  go  abroad 
and  by  the  use  of  money  and  audacity 
secure  a  following  to  drink  his  salt  water, 
paying  a  dollar  a  bottle  for  it  and  sing 
his  praises.  Such  a  doctor  can  secure  the 
names  and  pictures  of  judges,  governors 
of  States,  senators,  congressmen,  promi- 
nent men  and  women,  officers  of  the  vol- 

"3 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


unteer  army,  artists,  actors,  singers — in 
fact,  prominent  people  of  all  kinds  will 
provide  their  pictures  and  give  testi- 
monials, which  are  blazonly  published. 
These  same  people  go  to  Chinese  drug 
shops  and  laugh  at  the  "heathen"  drugs, 
and  wonder  why  the  Chinaman  is  alive. 
America  has  a  body  of  physicians  and 
surgeons  who  are  a  credit  to  the  world, 
modest,  conscientious,  and  with  a  high 
sense  of  honor,  but  they  are  as  a  dragon's 
tooth  in  a  multitude  to  the  so-called 
"quacks,"  who  take  the  money  of  the 
masses  and  prey  upon  them,  protected  in 
many  cases  by  the  law.  No  one  profes- 
sion so  demonstrates  the  abject  credulity 
of  the  great  mass  of  Americans  as  that  of 
medicine. 

One  other  incident  may  further  illus- 
trate the  jokes  these  so-called  doctors  play 
upon  the  common  people.     In  a  coun- 
try  town   was   a   "quack"   doctor,   who 
114 


THE    AMERICAN     DOCTOR 


professed  to  be  a  "head  examiner,"  giv- 
ing people  charts  according  to  their 
"bumps,"  a  fad  which  has  many  follow- 
ers. "This,  ladies  and  gentlemen,"  said 
the  lecturer,  holding  out  a  small  skull, 
"is  the  skull  of  Alexander  the  Great  at 
the  age  of  six.  Note  the  prominent  brow. 
This  [holding  up  a  larger  skull]  is  the 
same  at  the  age  of  ten.  This  [holding 
out  another]  at  the  age  of  twenty-one; 
[then  stepping  out  to  the  front  of  the 
stage]  this  is  the  complete  skull  of  Alex- 
ander at  the  time  of  his  death."  All  of 
which  appeared  to  be  accepted  in  good 
faith. 

Of  the  best  physicians  in  America  one 
can  not  say  enough  in  praise.  I  was 
most  impressed  by  their  high  sense  of 
honor.  They  have  an  agreement  which 
they  call  their  "ethics,"  by  which  they 
will  not  advertise  or  call  attention  to 
their  learning.  Consequently,  the  lower 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


and  ignorant  classes  are  caught  by  the 
blatant  chaff  of  the  patent-medicine 
venders  and  the  quack  doctors.  What 
the  word  "quack"  means  in  this  sense  I 
do  not  quite  know;  literally,  it  is  the  cry 
of  the  goose.  The  "regular  doctor"  will 
not  take  advantage  of  any  medicine  he 
may  discover,  or  any  instrument;  all 
belongs  to  humanity,  and  one  doctor  be^ 
comes  famous  over  another  by  his  success 
in  keeping  people  from  dying.  The 
grateful  patient  saved,  tells  his  friends, 
and  so  the  doctor  becomes  known.  In 
all  America  I  never  heard  of  a  doctor 
that  acted  on  the  principle  which  holds 
among  our  doctors,  that  the  best  way  to 
cure  is  to  watch  the  patient  and  keep  him 
well,  or  prevent  him  from  being  taken 
sick.  The  Americans,  in  their  conceit, 
consider  Chinese  doctors  ignorant  fakers; 
yet,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  the  death-rate 
among  the  Chinese,  city  for  city,  coun- 
116 


THE    AMERICAN     DOCTOR 


try  for  country,  is  less  than  among  Amer- 
icans. The  Chinese  women  are  longer 
lived  and  less  subject  to  disease.  In 
what  is  known  as  New  England,  the 
oldest  well-populated  section  of  the  coun- 
try, people  would  die  out  were  it  not  for 
the  constant  accession  of  immigrants.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Chinese  constantly  in- 
crease, despite  a  policy  of  non-intercourse 
with  foreigners.  (The  Americans  have, 
in  a  civilization  dating  back  to  1492,  al- 
ready begun  to  show  signs  of  decadence, 
and  are  only  saved  by  constant  immigra- 
tion. China  has  a  civilization  of  thou- 
sands of  years,  and  is  increasing  in  pop- 
ulation every  day,  yet  her  doctors  and 
their  methods  are  ridiculed  by  the  Amer- 
icansv  The  people  have  many  sayings 
here,  one  of  which  is,  "The  proof  of  the 
pudding  lies  in  the  eating."  It  seems 
applicable  to  this  case. 


117 


CHAPTER   VIII 

PECULIARITIES   AND    MANNERISMS 

ONE  finds  it  difficult  to  learn  the  lan- 
guage fluently  because  of  a  peculiar  sec- 
ond language  called  "slang,"  which  is  in 
use  even  among  the  fashionable  classes. 
I  despair  of  conveying  any  clear  idea  of 
it,  as  we  have  no  exact  equivalent.  As 
near  as  I  can  judge,  it  is  first  composed 
by  professional  actors  on  the  stage.  Some 
funny  remark  being  constantly  repeated, 
as  a  part  of  a  taking  song,  becomes  slang, 
conveying  a  certain  meaning,  and  is  at 
once  adopted  by  the  people,  especially 
by  a  class  who  pose  as  leaders  in  all 
towns,  but  who  are  not  exactly  the  best, 
but  charming  imitations  of  the  best,  we 
may  say.  To  illustrate  this  "jargon,"  I 
118 


PECULIARITIES     AND     MANNERISMS 

took  a  drive  with  a  young  lady  at  Man- 
chester— a  seaside  resort.  Her  father 
was  a  man  of  good  family,  an  official,  and 
she  was  an  attendant  at  a  fashionable 
school.  The  following  occurred  in  the 
conversation.  Her  slang  is  italicized: 

Heathen  Chinee:  "It  is  very  dull  this 
week,  Miss  -  — ." 

Young  lady,  sententiously:  "Bum" 

Heathen  Chinee:  "I  hope  it  will  be 
less  bum  soon." 

Young  lady:  "It's  all  off  with  me  all 
right,  if  it  don't  change  soon,  and  don't 
you  forget  it!" 

Heathen  Chinee:  "I  wish  I  could  do 
something." 

Young  lady:  "Well,  you'll  have  to  get 
a  move  on  you,  as  I  go  back  to  school 
to-morrow;  then  there'll  be  something 
doing" 

Heathen  Chinee :  "Have  you  seen 

lately?" 

119 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


Young  lady:  "Yes,  and  isn't  he  a 
peach?  Ah,  he's  a  peacharina,  and  don't 
you  forget  it/" 

Young  lady  (passing  a  friend)  :  "Ah, 
there!  why  so  toppy?  Nay,  nay,  Paul- 
ine" this  in  reply  to  remarks  from  a 
friend;  then  turning  to  me,  "Isn't  she  a 
jim  dandy?  Say,  have  you  any  girls  in 
China  that  can  top  her?" 

These  are  only  a  few  of  the  slang  ex- 
pressions which  occur  to  me.  They  are 
countless  and  endless.  Such  a  girl  in 
meeting  a  friend,  instead  of  saying  good- 
morning,  says,  "Ah,  there"  which  is  the 
slang  for  this  salutation.  If  she  wished 
to  express  a  difference  of  opinion  with 
you  she  would  say,  "Oh,  come  off"  This 
girl  would  probably  outgrow  this  if  she 
moved  in  the  very  best  circle,  but  the 
shop-girl  of  a  common  type  lives  in  a 
whirl  of  slang;  it  becomes  second  nature, 
while  the  young  men  of  all  classes  seem 
120 


PECULIARITIES     AND     MANNERISMS 

to  use  nothing  else,  and  we  often  see  the 
jargon  of  the  lowest  class  used  by  some 
of  the  best  people.  There  has  been  com- 
piled a  dictionary  of  slang;  books  are 
written  on  it,  and  an  adept,  say  a  "rough" 
or  "hoodlum,"  it  is  said  can  carry  on  a 
conversation  with  nothing  else.  Thus, 
"Hi,  cully,  what's  on?"  to  which  comes 
in  answer,  "Hunki  dori."  All  this  means 
that  a  man  has  said,  "How  do  you  do, 
how  are  you,  and  what  are  you  doing?" 
and  thus  learned  in  reply  that  everything 
is  all  right.  A  number  of  gentlemen  were 
posing  for  a  lady  before  a  camera.  "Have 
you  finished?"  asked  one.  "Yes,  it's  all 
o#","  was  the  reply,  "and  a  peach,  I 
think."  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that 
among  really  refined  people  this  slang  is 
never  heard,  and  would  be  considered  a 
gross  solecism,  which  gives  me  an  oppor- 
tunity to  repeat  that  the  really  cultivat- 
ed Americans,  and  they  are  many,  are 

121 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


among  the  most  delightful  and  charming 
of  people. 

They  have  strange  habits,  these  Amer- 
icans. The  men  chew  tobacco,  especially 
in  the  South,  and  in  Virginia  I  have  seen 
men  spitting  five  or  six  feet,  evidently 
taking  pride  in  their  skill  in  striking  a 
"cuspidore."  In  every  hotel,  office,  or 
public  place  are  cuspidores — which  be- 
come targets  for  these  chewers.  This  is 
a  national  habit,  extraordinary  in  so  en- 
lightened a  people.  So  ridiculous  has  it 
made  the  Americans,  so  much  has  been 
written  about  it  by  such  visitors  as 
Charles  Dickens,  that  the  State  govern- 
ments have  determined  to  take  up  the 
"spitting"  question,  and  now  there  is  a 
fine  of  from  $10  to  $100  for  any  one  spit- 
ting in  a  car  or  on  a  hotel  floor.  Nearly 
all  the  "up-to-date"  towns  have  passed 
anti-spitting  laws.  Up  to  this  time,  or 
even  during  my  college  days  in  Amer- 
122 


PECULIARITIES    AND     MANNERISMS 

ica,  this  habit  made  walking  on  the  side- 
walk a  most  disagreeable  function,  and 
the  interior  of  cars  was  a  horror.  Is  not 
this  remarkable  in  a  people  who  claim 
so  much?  In  the  South  certain  white 
men  and  women  chew  snuff — a  gross 
habit. 

In  the  North  they  also  have  a  strange 
custom,  called  chewing  gum.  This  gum 
is  the  exudation  from  certain  trees,  and 
is  manufactured  into  plates  and  sold  in 
an  attractive  form,  merely  to  chew  like 
tobacco,  and  young  and  old  may  be  seen 
chewing  with  great  velocity.  The  chil- 
dren forget  themselves  and  chew  with 
great  force,  their  jaws  working  like 
those  of  a  cow  chewing  her  cud,  only 
more  rapidly;  and  to  see  a  party  of  three 
or  four  chewing  frantically  is  one  of  the 
"sights"  in  America,  which  astonishes 
the  Heathen  Chinee  and  convinces  him 
that,  in  the  slang  of  the  country,  "there 

123 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


are  others"  who  are  peculiar.  There  are 
many  manufactories  of  this  stuff,  which 
is  harmless,  though  such  constant  chew- 
ing can  but  affect  the  size  of  the  muscles 
of  the  jaw  if  the  theory  of  evolution  is  to 
be  believed;  at  least  there  will  be  no 
atrophy  of  these  parts. 

In  New  England,  the  northeastern 
portion  of  the  country,  this  habit  ap- 
peared to  be  more  prevalent,  and  I  asked 
several  scientific  persons  if  they  had 
made  any  attempt  to  trace  the  history  of 
the  habit  or  to  find  anything  to  attribute 
it  to.  One  learned  man  told  me  that  he 
had  made  a  special  study  of  the  habit, 
and  believed  that  it  was  merely  the  mod- 
ern expression  in  human  beings  of  the 
cud  chewing  of  ruminating  mammals, 
as  cows,  goats,  etc.  In  a  word,  the  gum- 
chewing  Americans  are  trying  to  chew 
their  cud  as  did  their  ancestors.  Any 
habit  like  this  is  seized  upon  by  manu- 
124 


PECULIARITIES     AND     MANNERISMS 

facturers  for  their  personal  profit,  and 
every  expedient  is  employed  to  induce 
people  to  chew.  The  gum  is  mixed 
with  perfumes,  and  sold  as  a  breath  pu- 
rifier; others  mix  it  with  pepsin,  to  aid 
the  digestion;  some  with  something  else, 
which  is  sold  on  ships  and  excursion- 
boats  as  a  cure  or  preventive  for  sea- 
sickness, all  of  which  finds  a  large  sale 
among  the  credulous  Americans,  who  by 
a  clever  leader  can  be  made  to  take  up 
any  fad  or  habit. 

The  Americans  have  a  peculiar  habit 
of  "treating";  that  is,  one  of  a  party  will 
"treat"  or  buy  a  certain  article  and  dis- 
tribute it  gratuitously  to  one  or  ten  peo- 
ple. A  young  lady  may  treat  her  friends 
to  gum,  ice-cream,  soda-water,  or  to  a 
theater  party.  A  matron  may  treat  her 
friends  to  "high-balls"  or  cocktails  at 
the  club.  The  man  confines  his  "treats" 
to  drinks  and  cigars.  Thus  five  or  six 

125 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


Americans  may  meet  in  a  club  or  bar- 
room for  the  sale  of  liquors.  One  says, 
"Come  up  and  have  something;"  or 
"What  will  you  have,  gentlemen ;  this  is 
on  me;"  or  in  some  places  the  treater 
says,  "Let's  liquor,"  and  all  step  up,  the 
drinks  are  dispensed,  and  the  treater 
pays.  You  might  suppose  that  he  was  de- 
serving of  some  encomium,  but  not  at 
all ;  he  expects  that  the  others  will  take 
their  turn  in  treating,  or  at  least  this  is 
the  assumption;  and  if  the  party  is  en- 
gaged in  social  conversation  each  in  turn 
will  "treat,"  the  others  taking  what  they 
wish  to  drink  or  smoke.  There  is  a  code 
of  etiquette  regarding  the  treat.  Thus, 
unless  you  are  invited,  it  would  be  bad 
form  among  gentlemen  to  order  wine 
when  invited  to  drink  unless  the  "treater" 
asks  you  to  have  wine ;  he  means  a  drink 
of  whisky,  brandy,  or  a  mixed  drink,  or 
you  may  take  soda  or  a  cigar,  or  you  may 
126 


PECULIARITIES     AND     MANNERISMS 

refuse.  It  is  a  gross  solecism  to  accept 
a  cigar  and  put  it  in  your  pocket;  you 
should  not  take  it  unless  you  smoke  it  on 
the  spot. 

Drinking  to  excess  is  frowned  upon  by 
all  classes,  and  a  drunkard  is  avoided  and 
despised;  but  the  amount  an  American 
will  drink  in  a  day  is  astonishing.  A 
really  delightful  man  told  me  that  he  did 
not  drink  much,  and  this  was  his  daily 
experience:  before  breakfast  a  cham- 
pagne cocktail;  two  or  three  drinks  dur- 
ing the  forenoon;  a  pint  of  white  or  red 
wine  at  lunch;  two  or  three  cocktails  in 
the  afternoon;  a  cocktail  at  dinner,  with 
two  glasses  of  wine;  and  in  the  evening 
at  the  club  several  drinks  before  bed- 
time! This  man  was  never  drunk,  and 
never  appeared  to  be  under  the  influence 
of  liquor,  yet  he  was  in  reality  never 
actually  sober;  and  he  is  a  type  of  a 

large   number   in   the   great   cities   who 

127 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


constitute  what  is  termed  the  "man  about 
town." 

The  Americans  are  not  a  wine-drink- 
ing people.  Whisky,  and  of  a  very  ex- 
cellent quality,  is  the  national  drink, 
while  vast  quantities  of  beer  are  con- 
sumed, though  they  make  the  finest  red 
and  white  wines.  All  the  grog-shops  are 
licensed  by  the  Government  and  State — 
that  is,  made  to  pay  a  tax;  but  in  the 
country  there  is  a  political  party,  the 
Prohibitionists,  who  would  drive  out  all 
wine  and  liquor.  These,  working  with 
the  conservative  people,  often  succeed  in 
preventing  saloons  from  opening  in  cer- 
tain towns;  but  in  large  cities  there  are 
from  one  to  two  saloons  to  the  block  in 
the  districts  where  they  are  allowed. 

Taking  everything  into  consideration, 
I  think  the  Americans  a  temperate  peo- 
ple. They  organize  in  a  thousand  direc- 
tions to  fight  drinking  and  other  vices, 
128 


PECULIARITIES     AND     MANNERISMS 

and  millions  of  dollars  are  expended 
yearly  in  this  direction.  A  peculiar 
quality  about  the  American  humor  is 
that  they  joke  about  the  most  serious 
things.  In  fact,  drink  and  drinking  af- 
ford thousands  of  stones,  the  point  of 
which  is  often  very  obscure  to  an  alien. 
Here  is  one,  told  to  illustrate  the  clever- 
ness of  a  drinker.  He  walked  into  a  bar 
and  ordered  a  "tin-roof  cocktail."  The 
barkeeper  was  nonplussed,  and  asked 
what  a  tin-roof  cocktail  was.  "Why,  it's 
on  the  house."  I  leave  you  to  figure  it 
out,  but  the  barkeeper  paid  the  bill. 
The  ingenuity  of  the  Americans  is  shown 
in  their  mixed  drinks.  They  have  cock- 
tails, high-balls,  ponies,  straights,  fizzes, 
and  many  other  drinks.  Books  are  writ- 
ten on  the  subject.  I  have  seen  a  book 
devoted  entirely  to  cocktails.  Certain 
papers  offer  prizes  for  the  invention  of 

new  drinks.    I  have  told  you  that,  all  in 

129 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


all,  America  is  a  temperate  country,  es- 
pecially when  its  composite  character  is 
considered;  yet  if  the  nation  has  a  curse, 
a  great  moral  drawback,  it  is  the  habit 
of  drinking  at  the  public  bar. 


130 


CHAPTER    IX 

LIFE  IN  WASHINGTON 

ONE  of  the  best-known  American  au- 
thors has  immortalized  the  Chinaman  in 
some  of  his  verses.  It  was  some  time  be- 
fore I  understood  the  smile  which  went 
around  when  some  one  in  my  presence 
suggested  a  game  of  poker.  I  need  not 
repeat  the  poem,  but  the  essence  of  it  is 
that  th^"Heathen  Chinee  is  peculiar." 
Doubtless  Mr.  Harte  is  right,  but  the 
Chinaman  and  his  ways  are  not  more 
peculiar  to  the  American  than  American 
customs  and  contradictions  are  to  the 
ChinamanYIf  there  is  any  race  on  the 
earth  that  is  peculiar,  it  is  the  "Heathen 
Yankee,"  the  good-hearted,  ingenuous 
product  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth — 
black,  red,  white,  brown,  all  but  "yel- 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


low."  j  Imagine  yourself  going  out  to 
what  they  call  a  "stag"  dinner,  and  hav- 
ing an  officer  of  the  ranking  of  lieutenant 
shout,  "Hi,  John,  pass  the  wine!" 

Washington  can  not  be  said  to  be  a 
typical  American  city.  It  is  the  center 
of  official  life,  and  abounds  in  statesmen 
of  all  grades.  I  have  attended  one  of 
the  President's  receptions,  to  which  the 
diplomats  went  in  a  body;  then  followed 
the  army  and  navy,  General  Miles,  a 
good-looking,  soldier-like  man,  leading 
the  former,  and  Admiral  Dewey  the  lat- 
ter, a  fine  body  of  men,  all  in  full  uni- 
form, unpretentious,  and  quiet  compared 
to  similar  men  in  other  nations.  I 
passed  in  line,  and  found  the  President, 
standing  with  several  persons,  the  center 
of  a  group.  The  announcement  and 
presentation  were  made  by  an  officer  in 
full  uniform,  and  beyond  this  there  was 
no  formality,  indeed,  an  abundance  of 
132 


LIFE     IN     WASHINGTON 


republican  simplicity;  only  the  uniforms 
saved  it  from  the  commonplace. 

The  President  is  a  man  of  medium 
size,  thick-set,  and  inclined  to  be  fleshy, 
with  an  interesting,  smooth  face,  eye 
clear  and  glance  alert.  He  grasped  me 
quickly  by  the  hand,  but  shook  it  gin- 
gerly, giving  the  impression  that  he  was 
endeavoring  to  anticipate  me,  called  me 
by  name,  and  made  a  pleasant  allusion 
to  of  .  He  has  a  high  fore- 
head and  what  you  would  term  an  intel- 
ligent face,  but  not  one  you  would  pick 
out  as  that  of  a  great  man;  and  from  a 
study  of  his  work  I  should  say  that  he  is 
of  a  class  of  advanced  politicians,  clever 
in  political  intrigue,  quick  to  grasp  the 
best  situation  for  himself  or  party;  a  man 
of  high  moral  character,  but  not  a  great 
statesman,  only  a  man  with  high  ideals 
and  sentiments  and  the  faculty  of  im- 
pressing the  masses  that  he  is  great.  The 
»  133 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


really  intelligent  class  regard  him  as  a 
useful  man,  and  safe.  It  is  a  curious  fact 
that  the  chief  appreciation  of  President 
McKinley,  I  was  informed,  came  from 
the  masses,  who  say,  "He  is  so  kind  to  his 
wife"  (a  great  invalid)  ;  or  "He  is  a 
model  husband."  Why  there  should  be 
anything  remarkable  in  a  man's  being 
kind,  attentive,  and  loyal  to  an  invalid 
spouse  I  could  not  see.  Her  influence 
with  him  is  said  to  be  remarkable.  One 
day  she  asked  the  President  to  promote  a 
certain  officer,  the  son  of  one  of  the 
greatest  of  American  generals,  to  a  very 
high  rank.  He  did  so,  despite  the  fact 
that,  as  an  officer  said,  the  army  roared 
with  laughter  and  rage. 

The  influence  of  women  is  an  impor- 
tant factor  in  Washington  life.  I  was 
presented  to  an  officer  who  obtained  his 
commission  in  the  following  manner: 
Two  very  attractive  ladies  in  Washing- 
134 


LIFE     IN     WASHINGTON 


ton  were  discussing  their  relative  influ- 
ence with  the  powers  that  be,  when  one 
remarked,  "To  show  you  what  I  can  do, 
name  a  man  and  I  will  obtain  a  commis- 
sion in  the  army  for  him."  The  other 
lady  named  a  private  soldier,  whose  stu- 
pidity was  a  matter  of  record,  and  a  few 
days  later  he  became  an  officer;  but  the 
story  leaked  out. 

^President  McKinley  is  a  popular  Pres- 
ident with  the  masses,  but  the  aristocrats 
regard  him  with  indifference.  It  is  a 
singular  fact,  but  the  ViceiEiesident, 
Mr.  Roosevelt,  attracts  more  attention 
than  the  President.  He  is  a  type  that  is 
appreciated  in  America,  what  they  term 
in  the  West  a  "hustler";  active,  wide- 
awake, intense,  "strenuous,"  all  these 
terms  are  applied  to  him.  Said  an  offi- 
cer in  the  field  service  to  me,  "Roose- 
velt is  playing  on  a  ninety-nine-year  run 
of  luck;  he  always  lands  on  his  feet  at 

135 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


the  right  time  and  place."  "What  they 
call  a  man  of  destiny,"  I  suggested. 
"Yes,"  he  replied;  "he  is  the  Yankee  Oli- 
ver Cromwell.  He  can't  help  'getting 
there,'  and  he  has  a  sturdy,  evident  hon- 
esty of  purpose  that  carries  him  through. 
A  team  of  six  horses  won't  keep  him  out 
of  the  White  House."  This  is  the  gen- 
eral opinion  regarding  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent,  that  while  he  is  not  a  remarkable 
statesman,  he  already  overshadows  the 
President  in  the  eyes  of  the  public.  I 
think  the  secret  is  that  he  is  young  and  a 
hero,  and  what  the  Americans  call  an  all- 
around  man;  not  brilliant  in  any  par- 
ticular line,  but  a  man  of  energy,  like 

our . 

He  looks  it.  A  smooth  face,  square, 
determined  jaw,  with  a  look  about  the 
eye  suggestive  that  he  would  ride  you 
down  if  you  stood  in  the  way.  I  judge 
him  to  be  a  man  of  honor,  high  purpose, 
136 


LIFE     IN     WASHINGTON 


as  my  friend  said,  of  the  Cromwell  type, 
inclined  to  preach,  and  who  also  has 
what  the  Americans  call  the  "get-there" 
quality.  In  conversation  Vice-President 
Roosevelt  is  hearty  and  open,  a  poor 
diplomat,  but  a  talker  who  comes  to  the 
point.  He  says  what  he  thinks,  and  asks 
no  favor.  He  acts  as  though  he  wished 
to  clap  you  on  the  shoulder  and  be  fa- 
miliar. It  will  be  difficult  for  you  to 
understand  that  such  a  man  is  second  in 
rank  in  this  great  nation.  There  are  no 
imposing  surroundings,  no  glamor  of 
attendance,  only  Roosevelt,  strong  as  a 
water-ox  in  a  rice-field,  smiling,  all  on 
the  surface,  ready  to  fight  for  his  friend 
or  his  country.  Author,  cowboy,  stock- 
man, soldier,  essayist,  historian,  sports- 
man, clever  with  the  boxing-gloves  or 
saber,  hurdle-jumper,  crack  revolver  and 
rifle  shot,  naturalist  and  aristocrat,  such 
is  the  all-around  Vice-President  of  the 

137 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


United  States — a  man  who  will  make  a 
strong  impression  upon  the  history  of  the 
century  if  he  is  not  shot  by  Socialists. 

I  have  it  from  those  who  know,  that 
President  McKinley  would  be  killed  in 
less  than  a  week  if  the  guards  about  the 
White  House  were  removed.  He  never 
makes  a  move  without  guards  or  detec- 
tives, and  the  secret-service  men  surround 
him  as  carefully  as  possible.  It  would 
be  an  easy  matter  to  kill  him.  Like  all 
officials,  he  is  accessible  to  almost  any 
one  with  an  apparently  legitimate  ob- 
ject. Two  Presidents  have  been  mur- 
dered; all  are  threatened  continually  by 
half-insane  people  called  "cranks,"  and 
by  the  professional  Socialists,  mainly  for- 
eigners. Both  the  President  and  Vice- 
President  are  well-dressed  men.  Presi- 
dent McKinley,  when  I  was  granted 
an  audience,  wore  a  long-tailed  black 
"frock  coat"  and  vest,  light  trousers,  and 
138 


LIFE     IN     WASHINGTON 


patent  leather  or  varnished  shoes,  and 
standing  collar.  The  Vice-President  was 
similarly  dressed,  but  with  a  "turn-down" 
collar.  The  two  men  are  said  to  make  a 
"strong  team,"  and  it  is  a  foregone  con- 
clusion that  the  Vice-President  will  suc- 
ceed President  McKinley.  This  is  al- 
ready talked  of  by  the  society  people  at 
Newport.  "It  is  a  long  time,"  said  a 
lady  at  Newport,  "since  we  have  had  a 
President  who  represented  an  old  and 
distinguished  family.  The  McKinleys 
were  from  the  ordinary  ranks  of  life,  but 
eminently  respectable,  while  Roosevelt 
is  an  old  and  honored  name  in  New 
York,  identified  with  the  history  of  the 
State;  in  a  word,  typical  of  the  American 
aristocracy,  bearing  arms  by  right  of 
heritage." 

I  have  frequently  met  Admiral  Dewey, 
already  so  well  known  in  China.  He  is 
a  small  man,  with  bright  eyes,  who  al- 

139 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


ready  shows  the  effects  of  years.  Noth- 
ing could  illustrate  the  volatile,  uncer- 
tain character  of  the  American  than  the 
downfall  of  the  admiral  as  a  popular 
idol.  Here  a  "peculiarity"  of  the  Amer- 
ican is  seen.  Carried  away  by  political 
and  public  adulation,  the  old  sailor's 
new  wife,  the  sister  of  a  prominent  poli- 
tician, became  seized  with  a  desire  to 
make  him  President.  Then  the  hero 
lovers  raised  a  large  sum  and  purchased 
a  house  for  the  admiral;  but  the  poli- 
ticians ignored  him  as  a  candidate,  which 
was  a  humiliation,  and  the  donors  of  the 
house  demanded  their  money  returned 
when  the  admiral  placed  the  gift  in  the 
name  of  his  wife;  and  so  for  a  while  the 
entire  people  turned  against  the  gallant 
sailor,  who  was  criticized,  jeered  at,  and 
ridiculed.  All  he  had  accomplished  in 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  victories  in 
the  history  of  modern  warfare  was  for- 
140 


LIFE    IN    WASHINGTON 


gotten  in  a  moment,  to  the  lasting  dis- 
grace of  his  critics. 

One  of  the  interesting  places  in  Wash- 
ington is  the  Capitol,  perhaps  the  most 
splendid  building  in  any  land.  Here  we 
see  the  men  whom  the  Americans  select 
to  make  laws  for  them.  The  looker-on 
is  impressed  with  the  singular  fact  that 
most  of  the  senators  are  very  wealthy 
men ;  and  it  is  said  that  they  seek  the  po- 
sition for  the  honor  and  power  it  confers. 
I  was  told  that  so  many  are  millionaires 
that  it  gave  rise  to  the  suspicion  that  they 
bought  their  way  in,  and  this  has  been 
boldly  claimed  as  to  many  of  them.  This 
may  be  the  treasonable  suggestion  of 
some  enemy;  but  that  money  plays  a  part 
in  some  elections  there  is  little  doubt.  I 
believe  this  is  so  in  England,  where 
elections  have  often  been  carried  by 
money. 

The  American  Senate  is  a  dignified 

141 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


body,  and  I  doubt  if  it  have  a  peer  in  the 
world.  The  men  are  elected  by  the 
State  legislatures,  not  by  the  people  at 
large,  a  method  which  makes  it  easy  for 
an  unprincipled  millionaire  or  his  polit- 
ical manager  to  buy  votes  sufficient  to 
seat  his  patron.  The  fact  that  senators 
are  mainly  rich  does  not  imply  unfitness, 
but  quite  the  contrary.  Only  a  genius 
can  become  a  multi-millionaire  in  Amer- 
ica, and  hence  the  senators  are  in  the 
main  bright  men.  When  observing  these 
men  and  enabled  to  look  into  their 
records,  I  was  impressed  by  the  fact  that, 
despite  the  advantages  of  education,  this 
wonderful  country  has  produced  few 
really  great  men,  and  there  is  not  at  this 
time  a  great  man  on  the  horizon. 

America  has  no  Gladstone,  no  Salis- 
bury, no  Bright.  Lincoln,  Elaine  and 
Sumner  are  names  which  impress  me  as 

approximating  greatness;  they  made  an 
142 


LIFE     IN     WASHINGTON 


impression  on  American  history  that  will 
be  enduring.  Then  there  are  Frye, 
Reed,  Garfield,  McKinley,  Cleveland, 
who  were  little  great  men,  and  following 
them  a  distinguished  company,  as  Hanna, 
Conkling,  Hay,  Hayes,  and  others,  who 
were  superior  men  of  affairs.  A  dis- 
tinctly great  national  figure  has  not  ap- 
peared in  America  since  Daniel  Webster, 
Henry  Clay,  and  Rufus  Choate — all  men 
too  great  to  become  President.  It  ap- 
pears to  be  the  fate  of  the  republic  not 
to  place  its  greatest  men  in  the  White 
House,  and  by  this  I  mean  great  states- 
men. General  Grant  was  a  great  man, 
a  heroic  figure,  but  not  a  statesman.  Lin- 
coln is  considered  a  great  man.  He  is 
called  the  "Liberator";  but  I  can  con- 
ceive that  none  but  a  very  crude  mind, 
inspired  by  a  false  sentiment,  could  have 
made  a  horde  of  slaves,  the  most  igno- 
rant people  on  the  globe,  the  political 

143 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


equals  of  the  American  people.  A  great 
man  in  such  a  crisis  would  have  resisted 
popular  clamor  and  have  refused  them 
suffrage  until  they  had  been  prepared  to 
receive  it  by  at  least  some  education. 
Americans  are  prone  to  call  their  great 
politicians  statesmen.  Elaine,  Reed, 
Conkling,  Harrison  were  types  of  states- 
men; Hanna,  Quay,  and  others  are  poli- 
ticians. 

The  Lower  House  was  a  disappoint- 
ment to  me.  There  are  too  many  ordi- 
nary men  there.  They  do  not  look  great, 
and  at  the  present  time  there  is  not  a 
really  great  man  in  the  Lower  House. 
There  are  too  many  cheap  lawyers  and 
third-rate  politicians  there.  Good  busi- 
ness men  are  required,  but  such  men  can 
not  afford  to  take  the  position.  I  heard 
a  great  captain  of  industry,  who  had  been 
before  Congress  with  a  committee,  say 
that  he  never  saw  "so  many  asses  to- 
144 


LIFE     IN     WASHINGTON 


gether  in  all  his  life";  but  this  was  an 
extreme  view.  The  House  may  not  com- 
pare intellectually  with  the  House  of 
Commons,  but  it  contains  many  bright 
men.  A  fool  could  hardly  get  in,  though 
the  labor  unions  have  placed  some  vicious 
representatives  there.  The  lack  of  man- 
ners distressed  a  lady  acquaintance  of 
mine,  who,  in  a  burst  of  indignation  at 
seeing  a  congressman  sitting  with  his  feet 
on  his  desk,  said  that  there  was  not  a 
man  in  Congress  who  had  any  social  po- 
sition in  Washington  or  at  home,  which, 
let  us  trust,  is  not  true. 
C  As  I  came  from  the  White  House  some 
aays  ago  I  met  a  delegation  of  native 
Indians  going  in,  a  sad  sight.  In  Indian 
affairs  occurs  a  page  of  national  history 
which  the  Americans  are  not  proud  of. 
In  less  than  four  hundred  years  they 
have  almost  literally  been  wiped  from 
the  face  of  the  earth;  the  whites  have 

145 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


waged  a  war  of  extermination,  and  the 
pitiful  remnant  now  left  is  fast  disap- 
pearing. In  no  land  has  the  survival  of 
the  fittest  found  a  more  remarkable  illus- 
trationN  But  the  Indians  are  having 
their  revenge.  The  Americans  long  ago 
brought  over  Africans  as  slaves;  then,  as 
the  result  of  a  war  of  words  and  war  of 
fact,  suddenly  released  them  all,  and,  at 
one  fell  move,  in  obedience  to  the  hys- 
terical cries  of  their  people,  gave  these 
ignorant  semisavages  and  slaves  the 
same  political  rights  as  themselves. 

Imagine  the  condition  of  things!  The 
most  ignorant  and  debased  of  races  sud- 
denly receives  rights  and  privileges  and 
is  made  the  equal  of  American  citizens. 
So  strange  a  move  was  never  seen  or 
heard  of  elsewhere,  and  the  result  has 
been  relations  more  than  strained  and 
always  increasing  between  the  whites 
and  the  blacks  in  the  South.  As  voters 
146 


LIFE     IN     WASHINGTON 


the  negroes  secure  many  positions  in  the 
South  above  their  old  masters.  I  have 
seen  a*  negro1  sitting  in  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent's chair  in  the  United  States  Senate; 
while  white  Southern  senators  were 
pacing  the  outer  corridors  in  rage  and 
disgust.  There  are  generally  one  or  more 
black  men  in  Congress,  and  they  are 
given  a  few  offices  as  a  sop.  With  one 
hand  the  Americans  place  millions  of 
them  on  a  plane  with  themselves  as  free 
and  independent  citizens,  and  with  the 
other  refuse  them  the  privileges  of  such 
citizenship.  They  may  enter  the  army 
as  privates,  but  any  attempt  to  make  them 
officers  is  a  failure — white  officers  will 
not  associate  with  them.  It  is  impossible 
for  a  negro  to  graduate  from  the  Naval 
Academy,  though  he  has  the  right  to  do 
so.  I  was  told  that  white  sailors  would 
shoot  him  if  placed  over  them.  Several 

1  Probably  Senator  Bruce. 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


negroes  have  been  appointed  as  students, 
but  none  as  yet  have  been  able  to  pass  the 
examination.  Here  we  see  the  strange 
and  contradictory  nature  of  the  Amer- 
icans. The  white  master  of  the  South 
had  the  black  woman  nurse  his  children. 
Thousands  of  mulattoes  in  the  country 
show  that  the  whites  took  advantage  of 
the  women  in  other  ways,  marriage  be- 
tween blacks  and  whites  being  pro- 
hibited. When  it  comes  to  according 
the  blacks  recognition  as  social  equals, 
the  people  North  and  South  resent  even 
the  thought.  The  negro  woman  may 
provide  the  sustenance  of  life  for  the 
white  baby,  but  I  venture  to  say  that  any 
Southern  man,  or  Northern  one  for  that 
matter,  would  rather  see  his  daughter  die 
than  be  married  to  a  negro.  So  strong  is 
this  feeling  that  I  believe  in  the  extreme 
South  if  a  negro  persisted  in  his  addresses 
to  a  white  woman  he  would  be  shot,  and 
148 


LIFE     IN     WASHINGTON 


no  jury  or  judge  could  be  found  to  con- 
vict the  white  man. 

In  the  North  the  negro  has  certain 
rights.  He  can  ride  in  the  street-cars,  go 
to  the  theater,  enter  restaurants,  but  I 
doubt  if  large  hotels  would  entertain  him. 
In  the  South  every  train  has  its  separate 
cars  for  negroes;  every  station  its  wait- 
ing-room for  them;  even  on  the  street- 
cars they  are  divided  off  by  a  wire  rail 
or  screen,  and  sit  beneath  a  sign,  which 
advertises  this  free,  independent,  but 
black  American  voter  as  being  not  fit  to 
sit  by  the  side  of  his  political  brother. 
This  causes  a  bitter  feeling,  and  the  time 
is  coming  when  the  blacks  will  revolt. 
Already  criminal  attacks  upon  white 
women  are  not  uncommon,  and  a  virtual 
reign  of  terror  exists  in  some  portions  of 
the  South,  where  it  is  said  that  ^tfhite 
women  are  never  left  unprotected^*  and 

the  negro,  if  he  attacks  a  white  woman, 

149 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


is  almost  invariably  burned  alive,  with 
the  horrible  ghastly  features  that  attend 
an  Indian  scalping.  The  crowd  carry 
off  bits  of  skin,  hair,  finger-nails,  and 
rope  as  trophies.  In  fact,  these  "burn- 
ings" are  the  most  extraordinary  features 
in  this  "enlightened"  country.  The  pa- 
pers denounce  them  and  compare  the 
people  to  ghouls  ;fyet  these  same  people 
accuse  the  Chinese  of  being  cruel,  bar- 
barous, insensible  to  cruelty,  and  "pa- 
gans." It  is  true  we  have  pirates  and 
criminals,  but  the  horrible  features  of 
the  lynchings  in  America  during  the  last 
ten  years  I  believe  have  no  counterpart 
in  the  history  of  China  in  the  last  five 
hundred/ 

In  Washington  the  servants  are  blacks; 
irresponsible,  childlike,  aping  the  van- 
ities of  the  white  people.  They  are 
"niggers";  the  mulattoes,  the  illegitimate 
offspring  of  whites,  form  another  and 
150 


LIFE     IN     WASHINGTON 


totally  distinct  class  of  colored  society, 
and  are  the  aristocracy.  Rarely  will  a 
mulatto  girl  marry  a  black  man,  and  vice 
versa.  They  have  their  clubs  and  their 
functions,  their  professional  men,  in- 
cluding lawyers  and  doctors,  as  have  the 
white  people.  They  present  a  strange 
and  singular  feature.  Despised  by  their 
fathers,  half-sisters,  and  brothers,  de- 
nied any  social  recognition,  hating  their 
black  ancestry,  they  are  socially  "be- 
tween the  devil  and  the  deep  sea."  The 
negro  question  constitutes  the  gravest 
one  now  before  the  American  people. 
He  is  increasing  rapidly,  but  in  the  years 
since  the  civil  war  no  pure-blooded 
negro  has  given  evidence  of  brilliant  at- 
tainments. Frederick  Douglas,  Senator 
Bruce,  and  Booker  T.  Washington  rank 
with  many  white  Americans  in  author- 
ship, diplomacy,  and  scholarship;  but 
Douglas  and  Bruce  were  mulattoes,  and 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


Booker  Washington's  father  was  an  un- 
known white  man.  These  men  are  held 
in  high  esteem,  but  the  social  line,  has 
been  drawn  against  them,  though  Doug- 
las married  a  white  woman. 

Balls  are  a  feature  of  life  in  Washing- 
ton. The  women  appear  in  full  dress, 
which  means  that  the  arms  and  neck  are 
exposed,  and  the  men  wear  evening  dress. 
The  dances  are  mostly  "round."  The 
man  takes  a  lady  to  the  ball,  and  when 
he  dances  seizes  her  in  an  embrace  which 
would  be  considered  highly  improper 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  but  the 
etiquette  of  the  dance  makes  it  permis- 
sible. He  places  his  right  arm  around 
her  waist,  takes  her  left  hand  in  his,  holds 
her  close  to  him,  and  both  begin  to  move 
around  to  the  special  music  designed  for 
this  peculiar  motion,  which  may  be  a 
"waltz,"  or  a  "two-step,"  or  a  "gallop," 

or  a  "schottische,"  all  being  different  and 
152 


LIFE     IN     WASHINGTON 


having  different  music  or  time,  or  there 
may  be  various  kinds  of  music  for  each. 
At  times  the  music  is  varied,  being  a 
gliding,  scooping,  swooping  slide,  inde- 
scribable. When  the  dancers  feel  the  ap- 
proach of  giddiness  they  reverse  the 
whirl  or  move  backward. 

Many  Washington  men  have  become 
famous  as  dancers,  and  quite  outshadow 
war  heroes.  All  the  officers  of  the  army 
and  navy  are  taught  these  dances  at  the 
Military  and  Naval  Academies,  it  being 
a  national  policy  to  be  agreeable  to 
ladies;  at  least  this  must  be  so,  as  the 
men  never  dance  together.  To  see  sev- 
eral hundred  people  whirling  about,  as 
I  have  seen  them  at  the  inaugural  of  the 
President,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
scenes  to  be  observed  in  America.  The 
man  in  Washington  who  can  not  dance 
is  a  "wallflower" — that  is,  he  never  leaves 
the  wall.  There  is  a  professional  cham- 

153 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


pion  who  has  danced  eight  out  of  twenty- 
four  hours  without  stopping.  A  yearly 
convention  of  dancing-school  professors 
is  held.  These  men,  with  much  dignity, 
meet  in  various  cities  and  discuss  various 
dances,  how  to  grasp  the  partner,  and 
other  important  questions.  Some  time 
ago  the  question  was  whether  the  "gent" 
should  hold  a  handkerchief  in  the  hand 
he  pressed  upon  the  back  of  the  lady,  a 
professor  having  testified  before  the  con- 
vention that  he  had  seen  the  imprint  of 
a  man's  hand  on  the  white  dress  of  a  lady. 
The  acumen  displayed  at  these  conven- 
tions is  profound  and  impressive.  Here 
you  observe  a  singular  fact.  The  good 
dancer  may  be  an  officer  of  high  social 
standing,  but  the  dancing-teacher,  even 
though  he  be  famous  as  such,  is  persona 
non  gratia,  so  far  as  society  is  concerned. 
A  professional  dancer,  fighter,  wrestler, 
cook,  musician,  and  a  hundred  more  are 
154 


LIFE     IN     WASHINGTON 


not  acceptable  in  society  except  in  the 
strict  line  of  their  profession;  but  a  pro- 
fessional civil  or  naval  engineer,  an  or- 
ganist, an  artist,  a  decorator  (household), 
and  an  architect  are  received  by  the  elect 
in  Washington. 

I  have  alluded  to  the  craze  for  joking 
among  young  ladies  in  society.  At  a  din- 
ner a  reigning  beauty,  and  daughter  of 

,  who  sat  next  to  me,  talked  with  me 

on  dancing.  She  told  me  all  about  it, 
and,  pointing  to  a  tall,  distinguished- 
looking  man  near  by,  said  that  he  had  re- 
ceived his  degree  of  D.  D.  (Doctor  of 
Dancing)  from  Harvard  University,  and 
was  extremely  proud  of  it;  and,  further- 
more, it  would  please  him  to  have  me 
mention  it.  I  did  not  enlighten  the 
young  lady,  and  allowed  her  to  continue, 
that  I  might  enjoy  her  animation  and  su- 
perb "nerve"  (this  is  the  American  slang 
word  for  her  attitude).  The  gentleman 

155 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


was  her  uncle,  a  doctor  of  divinity,  who 
was  constitutionally  opposed  to  dancing; 
and  I  learned  later  that  he  had  a  cork  leg. 
Such  are  some  of  the  pitfalls  in  Wash- 
ington set  for  the  pagan  Oriental  by 
charming  Americans. 

Dancing  parties,  in  fact,  all  functions, 
are  seized  upon  by  young  men  and 
women  who  anticipate  marriage  as  es- 
pecially favorable  occasions  for  "court- 
ship." The  parents  apparently  have 
absolutely  nothing  to  do  with  the  affair, 
this  being  a  free  country.  The  girl  "falls 
in  love"  with  some  one,  and  the  courtship 
begins.  In  the  lower  classes  the  girl  is 
said  to  be  "keeping  company"  with  so 
and  so,  or  he  is  "her  steady  company."  In 
higher  circles  the  admirer  is  "devoted  to 
the  lady."  This  lasts  for  a  year,  perhaps 
longer,  the  man  monopolizing  the  young 
lady's  time,  calling  so  many  times  a  week, 
as  the  case  may  be,  the  familiarity  be- 

156 


LIFE     IN     WASHINGTON 


tween  the  two  increasing  until  they  finally 
exchange  kisses — a  popular  greeting  in 
America.  About  now  they  become 
affianced  or  "engaged,"  and  the  man  is 
supposed  to  ask  the  consent  of  the  parents. 
In  France  the  latter  is  supposed  to  give 
a  dot;  in  America  it  is  not  thought  of. 
In  time  the  wedding  occurs,  amid  much 
ceremony,  the  bride's  parents  bearing  all 
the  expense ;  the  groom  is  relieving  them 
of  a  future  expense,  and  is  naturally  not 
burdened.  The  married  young  people 
then  go  upon  a  "honeymoon,"  the  month 
succeeding  the  wedding,  and  this  is  long 
or  brief,  according  to  the  wealth  of  the 
parties.  When  they  return  they  usually 
live  by  themselves,  the  bride  resenting 
any  advice  or  espionage  from  her  hus- 
band's mother,  who  is  the  mother-in-law, 
a  relation  as  much  joked  about  in  Amer- 
ica as  revered  in  China. 

Sometimes  the  "engaged"   couple  do 

157 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


not  marry.  The  man  perhaps  in  his  long 
courtship  discovers  traits  that  weary  him, 
and  he  breaks  off  the  match.  If  he  is 
wealthy  the  average  American  girl  may 
sue  him  for  damages,  for  laceration  of 
the  affections.  One  woman  in  the  State 
of  New  York  sued  for  the  value  of  over 
two  thousand  kisses  her  "steady  com- 
pany" had  taken  during  a  number  of 
years'  courtship,  and  was  awarded  three 
thousand  dollars.  The  journal  from 
which  I  took  this  made  an  estimate  that 
the  kisses  had  cost  the  man  one  dollar 
and  a  half  each!  Sometimes  the  girl 
breaks  the  engagement,  and  if  presents 
have  been  given  she  returns  them,  the 
man  rarely  suing;  but  I  have  seen  record 
of  a  case  where  the  girl  refused  to  re- 
turn the  presents,  and  the  man  sued  for 
them;  but  no  jury  could  be  found  to  de- 
cide in  his  favor.  A  distinguished  physi- 
cian has  written  a  book  on  falling  in  love. 
158 


LIFE     IN     WASHINGTON 


It  is  recognized  as  a  contagious  disease; 
men  and  women  often  die  of  it,  and  com- 
mit the  most  extraordinary  acts  when 
under  its  influence.  I  have  observed  it, 
and,  all  things  considered,  it  has  no  ad- 
vantages over  the  Chinese  method  of 
attaining  the  marriage  state.  The  wis- 
dom of  some  older  person  is  certainly 
better  than  what  the  American  would 
call  the  "snap  judgment"  of  two  young 
people  carried  away  by  passion.  One 
might  find  the  chief  cause  of  divorce  in 
America  to  lie  in  this  strange  custom. 

I  was  invited  by  a  famous  wag  last 
week  to  meet  a  man  who  could  claim 
that  he  was  the  father  of  fifty-three  chil- 
dren and  several  hundred  grandchildren. 
I  fully  expected  to  see  the  Gaikivar  of 
Baroda,  or  some  such  celebrity,  but 
found  a  tall,  ministerial,  typical  Amer- 
ican, with  long  beard,  whom intro- 
duced to  me  as  a  Mormon  bishop,  who, 

159 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


he  said,  had  a  virtual  conge  d'elire  in 
the  Church,  at  the  same  time  referring 
to  me  as  a  Chinese  Mormon  with  "fifty 
wives."  I  endeavored  to  protest,  but 

explained  to  the  bishop  that  I  was 

merely  modest.  The  Mormons  are  a  sect 
who  believe  in  polygamy.  Each  man  has 
as  many  wives  as  he  can  support,  and  the 
population  increases  rapidly  where  they 
settle.  The  ludicrous  feature  of  Mor- 
monism  is  that  the  Government  has 
failed  to  stop  it,  though  it  has  legislated 
against  it;  but  it  is  well  known  that  the 
Mormon  allows  nothing  to  interfere  with 
his  "revelations,"  which  are  on  "tap"  in 
Utah. 

I  was  much  amused  at  the  bishop's  re- 
marks. He  said  that  if  the  American 
politicians  who  were  endeavoring  to  kill 
them  off  would  marry  their  actual  con- 
cubines, and  all  Americans  would  do  the 

same,  the  United  States  would  have  a 
1 60 


LIFE    IN     WASHINGTON 


Mormon  majority  the  next  day.  The 
bishop  had  the  frailties  and  moral  lapses 
of  prominent  people  in  all  lands  at  his 
ringers'  ends,  and  his  claim  was  that  the 
whole  civilized  world  was  practising 
polygamy,  but  doing  it  illegally,  and  the 
Mormons  were  the  only  ones  who  had 
the  honor  to  legitimatize  it.  The  joke 

was  on  ,  who  was  literally  bottled 

up  by  the  flow  of  facts  from  the  bishop, 
who  referred  to  me  to  substantiate  him, 
which  I  pretended  to  do,  in  order  totally 

to  crush ,  who  had  tried  to  make  me 

a  party  to  his  joke.  The  bishop,  who  in- 
vited me  to  call  upon  him  in  Utah,  said 
that  he  hoped  some  time  to  be  a  United 
States  senator,  though  he  supposed  the 
women  of  the  East  could  create  public 
sentiment  sufficient  to  defeat  him. 

I  once  stopped  over  in  Utah  and  vis- 
ited the  great  Mormon  Temple,  and  I 
must  say  that  the  Mormon  women  are 

161 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


far  below  the  average  in  intelligence, 
that  is,  if  personal  appearances  count.  I 
understand  they  are  recruited  from  the 
lowest  and  most  ignorant  classes  in  Eu- 
rope, where  there  are  thousands  of 
women  who  would  rather  have  a  fifth  of 
a  husband  than  work  in  the  field.  In  the 
language  of  American  slang,  I  imagine 
the  Americans  are  "up  against  it,"  as  the 
country  avowedly  offers  an  asylum  for  all 
seeking  religious  liberty,  and  the  Mor- 
mons claim  polygamy  as  a  divine  revela- 
tion and  a  part  of  their  doctrine. 

The  bishop,  I  believe,  was  not  a 
bishop,  but  a  proselyting  elder,  or  some- 
thing of  the  kind.  The  man  who  intro- 
duced me  to  him  was  a  type  peculiar  to 
America,  a  so-called  "good  fellow." 
People  called  him  by  his  first  name,  and 
he  returned  the  favor.  The  second  time 
I  met  him  he  called  me  Count,  and 
upon  my  replying  that  I  was  not  a  count 
162 


LIFE    IN     WASHINGTON 


he  said,  "Well,  you  look  it,  anyway,"  and 
he  has  always  called  me  Count.  He 
knows  every  one,  and  every  one  knows 
him — a  good-hearted  man,  a  spendthrift, 
yet  a  power  in  politics;  a  remarkable 
poker  player,  a  friend  worth  knowing, 
the  kind  of  man  you  like  to  meet,  and 
there  are  many  such  in  this  country. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE  AMERICAN   IN   LITERATURE 

I  HAVE  been  a  guest  at  the  annual  din- 
ner of  the  ,  one  of  the  leading  lit- 
erary associations  in  America,  and  later 

at  a  "reception"  at  the  house  of , 

where  I  met  some  of  the  most  charming 
men  and  delightful  women,  possessed  of 
manners  that  marked  the  person  of  cul- 
ture and  the  savoir  faire  that  I  have  seen 
so  little  of  among  other  "sets"  of  well- 
known  public  people.  But  what  think 
you  of  an  author  of  note  who  knew  abso- 
lutely nothing  of  the  literature  of  our 
country?  There  were  Italians,  French, 
and  Swedes  at  the  dinner,  who  were 
called  upon  to  respond  to  toasts  on  the 
literature  of  their  country;  but  was  I 
164 


THE    AMERICAN     IN     LITERATURE 

called  upon?  No,  indeed.  I  doubt  if  in 
all  that  entourage  there  was  more  than 
one  or  two  who  were  familiar  with  the 
splendid  literature  of  China  and  its  an- 
tiquity. 

But  to  come  to  the  "shock."  My  im- 
mediate companion  was  a  lady  with  just 
a  soupqon  of  the  masculine,  who,  I  was 
told,  was  a  distinguished  novelist,  which 
means  that  her  book  had  sold  to  the 
limit  of  30,000  copies.  After  a  toast  and 
speech  in  which  the  literature  of  Nor- 
way and  Sweden  had  been  extolled,  this 
charming  lady  turned  to  me  and  said,  "It 
is  too  bad,  —  - — ,  that  you  have  no  litera- 
ture in  China;  you  miss  so  much  that  is 
enjoyed  by  other  nations."  This  was  too 
much,  and  I  broke  one  of  the  American 
rules  of  chivalry — I  became  disputatious 
with  a  lady  and  slightly  cynical;  and 
when  I  wish  to  be  cynical  I  always  quote 
Mr.  Harte,  which  usually  "brings  down 
12  165 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


the  house."  To  hear  a  Chinese  heathen 
quote  the  "Heathen  Chinee"  is  supposed 
to  be  very  funny. 

I  said,  "My  dear  madam,  I  am  sur- 
prised that  you  do  not  know  that  China 
has  the  finest  and  oldest  literature  known 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  I  assure  you, 
my  ancestors  were  writing  books  when 
the  Anglo-Saxon  was  living  in  caves."  1 
She  was  astonished  and  somewhat  dis- 
mayed, but  was  not  cast  down — the  clever 
American  woman  never  is.  I  told  her 
of  our  classics,  of  our  wonderful  Book 
of  Changes,  written  by  my  ancestor  Wan 
Wang  in  1150  B.  C.  I  told  her  of  his 
philosophy.  I  compared  his  idea  of  the 
creation  to  that  in  the  Bible.  I  explained 
the  loss  of  many  rare  Chinese  books  by 
the  piratical  order  of  destruction  by  Em- 
peror Che  Hwang-ti,  calling  attention 

1  As  a  frontispiece  to  this  volume,  the  cover  design  used  on  one  of 
these  old  Chinese  books  is  shown. 

166 


THE    AMERICAN     IN     LITERATURE 

to  the  fact  that  the  burning  of  the  famous 
library  of  Alexandria  was  a  parallel.  I 
asked  her  if  it  were  possible  that  she  had 
never  heard  of  the  Odes  of  Confucius, 
or  his  Book  of  History,  which  was  sup- 
posed to  have  been  destroyed,  but  which 
was  found  in  the  walls  of  his  home  one 
hundred  and  forty  years  before  Christ, 
and  so  saved  to  become  a  part  of  the  lit- 
erature of  China. 

Finally  she  said,  "I  have  studied  lit- 
erature, but  that  of  China  was  not  in- 
cluded." "Your  history,"  I  continued, 
"begins  in  1492;  our  written  history  be- 
gins in  the  twenty-third  century  before 
Christ,  and  the  years  down  to  720  B.  C. 
are  particularly  well  covered,  while  our 
legends  run  back  for  thousands  of  years." 
But  my  companion  had  never  heard  of 
the  Shoo-King.  It  was  so  with  the 
Chun  Tsew1  of  Confucius  and  the  Four 


1  Spring  and  Autumn 

167 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW   US 


Books — Ta-he-o*  Chung-yung,2  Lun-yu? 
Mang-tsze.4  She  had  never  heard  of 
them.  I  told  her  of  the  invention  of 
paper  by  the  Marquis  Tsae  several  cen- 
turies before  Christ,  and  she  laughingly 
replied  that  she  supposed  that  I  would 
claim  next  that  the  Chinese  had  libraries 
like  those  Mr.  Carnegie  is  founding.  I 
was  delighted  to  assure  her  that  her  as- 
sumption was  correct,  and  drew  a  little 
picture  of  a  well-known  Chinese  library 
founded  two  thousand  years  ago,  the 
Han  Library,  with  its  3,123  classics,  its 
2,706  works  on  philosophy,  its  2,528 
books  on  mathematics,  its  790  works  on 
war,  its  868  books  on  medicine,  1,318 
on  poetry,  not  to  speak  of  thousands  of 
essays. 

I  could  not  but  wonder  as  I  talked, 
where  were  the  Americans  and  their  lit- 

1  Great  Learning.  *  Doctrine  of  the  Mean. 

1  Confucian  Analects.  *  Works  of  Mencius. 

168 


THE    AMERICAN     IN     LITERATURE 

erature  when  our  fathers  were  reading 
these  books  two  thousand  years  ago! 
Even  the  English  people  were  wild  sav- 
ages, living  in  caves  and  huts,  when  our 
people  were  printing  books  and  encyclo- 
pedias of  knowledge.  I  dwelt  upon  our 
poetry,  the  National  Airs,  Greater  Eulo- 
gies, dating  back  several  thousand  years. 
I  told  her  of  the  splendors  of  our  great 
versifier,  Le-Tai-Pih;  and  I  might  have 
said  that  many  American  poets,  like 
Walt  Whitman,  had  doubtless  read  the 
translations  to  their  advantage.  I  had 
the  pleasure  at  least  of  commanding  this 
lady's  attention,  and  I  believe  she  was  the 
first  American  who  deigned  to  take  a 
Chinaman  seriously.  The  facts  of  our 
literature  are  available,  but  only  scholars 
make  a  study  of  it,  and  so  far  as  I  could 
learn  not  a  word  of  Chinese  literature  is 
ever  taught  in  American  schools,  though 
in  the  great  universities  there  are  facili- 

169 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


ties,  and  the  best  educated  people  are 
familiar  with  our  history. 

The  American  authors,  especially  nov- 
elists, who  constitute  the  majority  of 
authors,  are  by  no  means  all  well  edu- 
cated. Many  appear  to  have  a  faculty 
of  "story-telling,"  which  enables  them  to 
produce  something  that  will  sell;  but 
that  all  American  authors,  and  this  will 
surprise  you,  are  included  among  the 
great  scholars,  is  far  from  true.  Some, 
yes  many,  are  deplorably  ignorant  in  the 
sense  of  broad  learning,  and  I  believe  this 
is  a  universal,  national  fault.  If  one 
thing  Chinese  more  than  another  is  ridi- 
culed in  America  it  is  our  drama.  I  met 
a  famous  "play-writer"  at  the  -  -  din- 
ner, who  thought  it  a  huge  joke.  I  heard 
that  his  income  was  $30,000  per  annum 
from  plays  alone;  yet  he  had  never  heard 
of  our  "Hundred  Plays  of  the  Yuen 
Dynasty,"  which  rests  in  one  of  his  own 
170 


THE    AMERICAN     IN     LITERATURE 

city  libraries  not  a  mile  distant,  and 
he  laughed  good-naturedly  when  I  re- 
marked that  the  modern  stage  obtained 
its  initiative  in  China. 

A  listener  did  me  the  honor  to  ques- 
tion my  statement  that  Voltaire's  "Z/Or- 
phelin  de  la  Chine"  was  taken  from 
the  Orphan  of  Chaou  of  this  collection, 
which  I  thought  every  one  knew.  All 
the  authors  whom  I  met  seemed  sur- 
prised to  learn  that  I  was  familiar  with 
their  literature  and  could  compare  it 
synthetically  with  that  of  other  nations, 
and  even  more  so  when  I  said  that  all 
well-educated  Chinamen  endeavored  to 
familiarize  themselves  with  the  literature 
o£  other  countries. 

^  I  continually  gain  the  impression  that 
the  Americans  "size  us  up,"  as  they  say, 
and  "lump"  us  with  the  "coolie."  We 
are  "heathen  Chinee,"  and  it  is  incom- 
prehensible that  we  should  know  any- 

171 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


thing.  I  am  talking  now  of  the  half- 
educated  people  as  I  have  met  them. 
Here  and  there  I  meet  men  and  women 
of  the  highest  culture  and  knowledges 
and  this  class  has  no  peer  in  the  world) 
If  I  were  to  live  in  America  I  should 
wish  to  consort  with  her  real  scholars, 
culled  from  the  best  society  of  New  York, 
Boston,  Philadelphia,  Washington,  Bal- 
timore, and  other  cities.  In  a  word,  the 
aristocracy  of  America  is  her  educated 
class,  the  education  that  comes  from  asso- 
ciation year  after  year  with  other  culti- 
vated people.  I  understand  there  is  more 
of  it  in  Boston  and  Philadelphia  than 
anywhere;  but  you  find  it  in  all  towns 
and  cities.  This  I  grant  is  the  real  Amer- 
ican, who,  in  time — several  thousand 
years  perhaps — as  in  our  own  case,  will 
demonstrate  the  wonderful  possibilities 
of  the  human  race  in  the  West. 

I  would  like  to  tell  you   something 
172 


THE    AMERICAN     IN     LITERATURE 

about  the  books  of  the  literary  men  and 
women  I  have  met,  but  you  will  be  more 
interested  in  the  things  I  have  seen  and 
the  mannerisms  of  the  people.  I  was  told 
by  a  distinguished  writer  that  America 
had  failed  to  produce  any  really  great 
authors — I  mean  to  compare  with  other 
nations — and  I  agreed  with  him,  al- 
though appreciating  what  she  has  done. 
There  is  no  one  to  compare  with  the 
great  minds  of  England — Scott,  Dickens, 
Thackeray.  There  is  no  American  poet 
to  compare  with  Tennyson,  Milton,  and 
a  dozen  others  in  England,  France,  Italy, 
and  Germany;  indeed,  America  is  far 
behind  in  this  respect,  yet  in  the  making 
of  books  there  is  nothing  to  compare  with 
it.  Every  American,  apparently,  aspires 
to  become  an  author,  and  I  really  think 
it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  citizen  of 
the  republic  who  had  not  been  a  con- 
tributor to  some  publication  at  some  time, 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


or  had  not  written  a  book.  The  output 
of  books  is  extraordinary,  and  covers 
every  field;  but  the  class  is  not  in  all 
cases  such  as  one  might  expect.  The 
people  are  omnivorous  readers,  and  "sto- 
ries," "novels,"  are  ground  out  by  the 
ton;  but  I  doubt  if  a  book  has  been  pro- 
duced since  the  time  of  Hawthorne  that 
will  really  live  as  a  great  classic. 

The  American  authors  are  mainly  col- 
lected in  New  York,  where  the  great  pub- 
lishing houses  are  located,  and  are  a  fine 
representative  class  of  men  and  women, 
of  whom  I  have  met  a  number,  such  as 
Howells,  the  author  and  editor,  and 
Mark  Twain,  the  latter  the  most  brilliant 
litterateur  in  the  United  States.  This 
will  be  discovered  when  he  dies  and  is 
safe  beyond  receiving  all  possible  bene- 
fits from  such  recognition.  Many  men 
in  America  make  reputations  as  humor- 
ists, and  find  it  impossible  to  divest  their 


THE    AMERICAN    IN     LITERATURE 

more  serious  writings  from  this  "taint," 
if  so  it  may  be  called.  They  are  not 
taken  seriously  when  they  seriously  de- 
sire it;  a  fact  I  fully  appreciate,  as  I  am 
taken  as  a  joke,  my  "pigtail,"  my  "shoes," 
my  "clothes,"  my  way  of  speaking,  all 
being  objects  of  joking. 

The  literary  men  have  several  clubs 
in  New  York,  where  they  can  be  found, 
and  many  have  marked  peculiarities, 
which  are  interesting  to  a  foreigner. 
Several  artists  affect  a  peculiar  style  of 
dress  to  advertise  their  wares.  One,  it  is 
said,  lived  in  a  tree  at  Washington.  It 
is  not  so  much  with  the  authors  as  with 
the  methods  of  making  books  that  I 
think  you  will  be  interested.  I  met  a 
rising  young  author  at  a  dinner  in  Wash- 
ington who  confided  to  me  that  the  "book 
business"  was  really  ruined  in  America 
by  reason  of  the  mad  craze  of  nearly  all 
Americans  to  become  writers.  He  said 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


that  he  as  an  editor  had  been  offered 
money  to  publish  a  novel  by  a  society 
woman  who  desired  to  pose  as  an  au- 
thoress. This  author  said  that  there  were 
in  America  a  dozen  or  more  of  the  finest 
and  most  honorable  publishing  houses  in 
the  world,  but  there  were  many  more  in 
the  various  cities  which  virtually  preyed 
upon  this  "literary  disease"  of  the  people. 
No  country  in  the  world,  said  my  ac- 
quaintance, produces  so  many  books  every 
year  as  America;  so  many,  in  fact,  that 
the  shops  groan  with  them  and  the  for- 
ests of  America  threaten  to  give  out,  and 
the  supply  virtually  clogs  and  ruins  the 
market.  So  crazy  are  the  people  to  be 
authors  and  see  themselves  in  print  that 
they  will  go  to  any  length  to  accomplish 
authorship. 

He  cited  a  case  of  a  carpenter,  a  man 
of  no  education,  who  was  seized  with  the 
desire  to  write  a  book,  which  he  did.    It 
176 


THE    AMERICAN     IN     LITERATURE 

was  sent  to  all  the  leading  publishers, 
and  promptly  returned;  then  he  began 
the  rounds  of  the  second-class  houses,  of 
which  there  are  legion.  One  of  the  lat- 
ter wrote  him  that  they  published  on  the 
"cooperative"  plan,  and  would  pay  half 
the  expenses  of  publishing  if  he  would 
pay  the  other  half.  Of  course  his  share 
paid  for  the  entire  edition  and  gave  the 
clever  "cooperative"  publisher  a  profit, 
whether  the  edition  sold  or  not.  And  my 
informant  said  that  at  least  twenty  firms 
were  publishing  books  for  such  authors, 
and  encouraging  people  to  produce 
manuscripts  that  were  so  much  "dead 
wood"  in  the  real  literary  field.  He 
later  sent  me  the  prospectus  of  several 
such  houses  which  would  take  any  man- 
uscript, if  the  author  would  pay  for  the 
publishing,  revise  it  and  send  it  forth. 
I  was  assured  that  thousands  of  books  are 
produced  yearly  by  these  houses,  who  are 

177 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


really  "printers,"  who  advertise  in  va- 
rious ways  and  encourage  would-be  au- 
thors, the  idea  being  to  get  their  money, 
a  species  of  literary  "graft,"  according  to 
my  literary  informant,  who  assured  me 
I  must  not  confuse  such  parasites  with  the 
large  publishers  of  America,  who  will 
not  produce  a  book  unless  their  skilled 
readers  consider  it  a  credit  to  them  and 
to  the  country,  a  high  standard  which  I 
believe  is  maintained. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  phase  of 
literature  in  America  is  found  in  the 
weekly  and  monthly  magazines,  of  which 
there  is  no  end.  Every  sport  has  its  "or- 
gan," every  great  trade,  every  society, 
every  religion ;  even  the  missionaries  sent 
to  China  have  their  organs,  in  which  is 
reported  their  success  in  saving  us  and 
divorcing  us  from  our  ancient  beliefs. 
The  great  literary  magazines  number 
perhaps  a  dozen,  with  a  few  in  the  front 
178 


THE    AMERICAN     IN     LITERATURE 

rank,  such  as  the  Century,  Harper's, 
Scribner's,  The  Atlantic,  Cosmopolitan, 
McClure's,  Dial,  North  American  Re- 
view, Popular  Science  Monthly,  Book- 
man, Critic,  and  Nation.  Such  maga- 
zines I  conceive  to  be  the  universities  of 
the  people,  the  great  educators  in  art,  lit- 
erature, science,  etc.  Nothing  escapes 
them.  They  are  timely,  beautiful,  exact, 
thorough,  scientific,  the  reflex  of  the  best 
and  most  artistic  minds  in  America;  and 
many  are  so  cheap  as  to  be  within  the 
reach  of  the  poor.  It  is  interesting  to 
know  that  most  of  these  magazines  are 
sources  of  wealth,  the  money  coming 
from  the  advertisements,  published  as  a 
feature  in  the  front  and  back.  These  no- 
tices are  in  bulk  often  more  than  the  lit- 
erary portion,  and  the  rate  charged,  I  was 
told,  from  $100  to  $1,000  per  page  for  a 
single  printing. 

The  skill  with  which  appeals  are  made 

179 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


to  the  weaknesses  of  readers  is  well 
shown  in  some  of  the  minor  publications 
not  exactly  within  the  same  class  as  the 
literary  magazines.  One  that  is  devoted 
to  women  is  a  most  clever  appeal  to  the 
idiosyncrasies  of  the  sex:  There  are  arti- 
cles on  cooking,  dinners,  luncheons,  how 
to  set  tables,  table  manners,  etiquette 
(one  would  think  they  had  read  Con- 
fucius), how  to  dress  for  these  func- 
tions; and,  in  fact,  every  occupation  in 
life  possible  to  a  woman  is  dealt  with 
by  an  extraordinary  editor  who  is  a  man. 
Whenever  I  was  joked  with  about  our 
men  acting  on  the  stage  as  women,  I  re- 
torted by  quoting  Mr.  -  — ,  the  male 

editor  of  the  female ,  who  is  either  a 

consummate  actor  or  a  remarkably  com- 
posite creature,  to  so  thoroughly  antici- 
pate his  audience.  The  mother,  the 
widow,  the  orphan,  the  young  maiden, 

the  "old  maid,"  are  all  taken  into  the  con- 
180 


THE    AMERICAN     IN     LITERATURE 

fidence  of  this  editor,  who  in  his  edi- 
torials has  what  are  termed  "heart  to 
heart"  talks. 

I  send  you  a  copy  of  this  paper,  which 
is  very  clever  and  very  successful,  and  a 
good  illustration  of  the  American  maga- 
zine that,  while  claiming  to  be  literature, 
is  a  mechanical  production,  "machine 
made"  in  every  sense.  One  can  imagine 
the  introspective  editor  entering  all  the 
foibles  and  weaknesses  of  women  in  a 
book  and  in  cold  blood  forming  a  depart- 
ment to  appeal  to  each.  I  was  informed 
that  the  editors  of  such  publications  were 
"not  in  business  for  their  health,"  but  for 
money;  and  their  energies  are  all  ex- 
pended on  projects  to  hold  present  read- 
ers and  obtain  others.  The  more  readers 
the  more  they  can  charge  the  "adver- 
tiser" in  the  back  or  side  pages,  who  here 
illustrate  their  deadly  corsets,  their  new 
dye  for  the  hair,  their  beauty  doctors, 
13  181 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


freckle  eradicators,  powders  for  the 
toilet,  bustles,  and  the  thousand  and  one 
things  which  shrewd  dealers  are  anxious 
to  have  women  take  up. 

The  children  also  have  their  journals 
or  "magazines."  One  in  New  York 
deals  with  fairies  and  genii,  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  good  for  the  imagina- 
tion. Another,  published  in  Boston,  de- 
nounces the  fairy-story  idea,  and  gives 
the  children  stories  by  great  generals, 
princes  of  the  blood,  captains  of  indus- 
try, admirals,  etc.;  briefly,  the  name  of 
the  writer,  not  the  literary  quality  of  the 
tale,  is  the  important  feature.  There  are 
papers  for  babes,  boys,  girls,  the  sick  and 
the  well. 

The  most  conspicuous  literary  names 
before  the  people  are  Howells,  Twain, 
and  Harte,  though  one  hears  of  scores  of 
novelists,  who,  I  believe,  will  be  forgot- 
ten in  a  decade  or  so.  As  I  have  said 
182 


THE    AMERICAN     IN     LITERATURE 

previously,  I  am  always  joked  with 
about  the  "Heathen  Chinee."  I  have 
really  learned  to  play  "poker,"  but  I  sel- 
dom if  ever  sit  down  to  a  game  that  some 
one  does  not  joke  with  me  about  "Ah 
Sin."  Such  is  the  American  idea  of  the 
proprieties  and  their  sense  of  humor;  yet 
I  finally  have  come  to  be  so  good  an 
American  that  I  can  laugh  also,  for  I  am 
confident  the  jokers  mean  it  all  in  the 
best  of  feeling. 

There  are  in  America  a  class  of  lit- 
terateurs who  are  rarely  heard  of  by  the 
masses,  but  to  my  mind  they  are  among 
the  greatest  and  most  advanced  Amer- 
icans. They  are  the  astronomers,  geol- 
ogists, zoologists,  ornithologists,  and 
others,  authors  of  papers  and  articles  in 
the  Government  Reports  of  priceless 
value.  These  writers  appear  to  me,  an 
outsider,  to  be  the  real  safety-valves,  the 
real  backbone  of  the  literary  productions 

183 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


of  the  day.  With  them  science  is  but  a 
synonym  of  truth;  they  fling  all  super- 
stition and  ignorance  to  the  winds,  and 
should  be  better  known.  Such  names  as 
Edison,  Cope,  Marsh,  Hall,  Young, 
Field,  Baird,  Agassiz,  and  fifty  more 
might  be  mentioned,  all  authors  whose 
books  will  give  them  undying  fame,  men 
who  have  devoted  a  lifetime  to  research 
and  the  accumulation  of  knowledge;  yet 
the  author  of  the  last  novel,  "My  Mule 
from  New  Jersey,"  will,  for  the  day, 
have  more  vogue  among  the  people  than 
any  of  these.  But  such  is  fame,  at  least 
in  America,  where  erudition  is  not  ap- 
preciated as  it  is  in  "pagan"  China. 


184 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE  POLITICAL  BOSS 

AT  an  assembly-room  in  New  York  I 
met  a  famous  American  political  "boss." 
Many  governors  in  China  do  not  have 
the  same  power  and  influence.  I  had  let- 
ters to  him  from  Senators  —  -  and . 

I  expected  to  meet  a  man  of  the  highest 
culture,  but  what  was  my  surprise  to  see 
a  huge,  overgrown,  uneducated  Irish- 
man, gross  in  every  particular,  who  used 
the  local  "slang"  so  fiercely  that  I  had 
difficulty  in  understanding  him.  He  had 
been  a  police  officer,  and  I  understand 
was  a  "grafter,"  but  that  may  have  been 
a  report  of  his  enemies,  as  he  commanded 
attention  at  the  time  of  the  election. 

This  man  had  a  fund  of  humor,  which 
was  displayed  in  his  clapping  me  on  the 

185 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


back  and  calling  me  "John,"  introducing 
me  to  a  dozen  or  so  of  as  hard-looking 
men  in  the  garb  of  gentlemen  as  I  have 
ever  seen.  I  heard  them  described  later 
as  "ward  beetles,"  and  they  looked  it, 
whatever  it  meant.  The  "Boss"  ap- 
peared much  interested  in  me;  said  he 
had  heard  I  was  no  "slouch,"  and  knew 
I  must  have  a  "pull"  or  I  would  not  be 
where  I  am.  He  wished  to  know  how 
we  run  elections  on  "the  Ho-Hang-Ho." 
When  I  told  him  that  a  candidate  for  a 
governmental  office  never  obtained  it 
until  he  passed  one  of  three  very  diffi- 
cult literary  examinations  in  our  nine 
classics,  and  that  there  were  thousands 
competing  for  the  office,  he  was  "para- 
lyzed"— that  is,  he  said  he  was,  and  vol- 
unteered the  information  that  "he  would 
not  be  'in  it'  in  China."  I  thought  so 
myself,  but  did  not  say  so. 
f  I  told  him  that  the  politicians  in  China 
186 


THE     POLITICAL     BOSS 


were  the  greatest  scholars;  that  the  policy 
of  the  Government  was  to  make  all  offices 
competitive,  as  we  thus  secured  the 
brightest,  smartest,  and  most  gifted  men 

for  officials^)  "Smart  h 1"   retorted 

the  "Boss."  "Why,  we've  got  smart  men. 
Look  at  our  school-teachers.  Them  guys1 
is  crammed  with  gulf,2  and  passing  ex- 
aminations all  the  time;. but  there  ain't 
one  in  a  thousand  that's  got  sense  enough 
to  run  a  tamale3  convention.  The  State 
governor  would  get  left  here  if  all  the 
boys  that  wanted  office  had  to  pass  an  ex- 
amination. We've  got  something  like  it 
here,"  he  said,  "that  blank  Civil  Service, 
that  keeps  many  a  natural-born  genius 
out  of  office;  but  it  don't  'cut  ice  with 
me.'  I'm  the  whole  thing  in  the 
ward." 

Despite  his  rough  exterior,  -      -  was 

1  Slang  for  citizens.  a  Slang  for  information,  facts. 

8  Mexican  hash  in  corn-husk. 

I87 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


a  good-hearted  fellow,  as  they  say,  no 
rougher  than  his  constituents,  and  I  was 
with  him  several  days  during  a  local  elec- 
tion with  a  view  to  studying  American 
politics^  Much  of  the  time  was  spent  in 
the  saloons  of  the  district  where  the 
"Boss"  held  out,  and  where  I  was  intro- 
duced as  a  "white  Chinee."  or  as  a  "white 
Chink,"  and  "my  friend.)  I  wish  I  had 
kept  a  list  of  the  drinks  the  "Boss"  took 
and  the  cigars  he  smoked  per  diem.  Per- 
haps it  is  as  well  I  did  not;  you  would 
not  believe  me.  I  was  always  "John"  to 
this  crowd,  that  was  made  up  of  laboring 
people  in  the  main,  of  whom  Irish  and 
Germans  predominated.  The  "Boss" 
was  what  they  called  a  "bulldozer."  If 
a  man  differed  with  him  he  tried  to  talk 
or  drink  him  down;  if  it  was  an  enemy 
and  he  became  too  disputatious,  he  would 
knock  him  out  with  his  fist.  In  this  way 
he  had  acquired  a  reputation  as  a  "slug- 
188 


THE     POLITICAL     BOSS 


ger,"  that  counted  for  much  in  such  an 
assemblage,  and  he  confided  to  me  one 
evening  that  it  was  the  easiest  way  to 
"stop  talk,"  and  that  if  he  "laid  down," 
the  opposition  would  walk  off  with  all  his 
"people."  He  was  "Boss"  because  he  was 
the  boss  slugger,  the  best  executive,  the 
best  drinker  and  smoker,  the  best  "per- 
suader," and  the  best  public  speaker  in 
his  ward.  So  you  see  he  had  a  variety  of 
talents.  In  China  I  can  imagine  such  a 
man  being  beheaded  as  a  pirate  in  a  few 
weeks ;  this  would  be  as  good  an  excuse 
as  any;  yet  men  like  this  have  grown  and 
developed  into  respectable  persons  in 
New  York  and  other  cities. 

"For  ways  that  are  dark  and  tricks  that 
are  vain,  the  Heathen  Chinee  is  pecul- 
iar," but  I  doubt  if  he  is  more  so  than 
the  political  system  of  the  United  States, 
where  every  man  is  supposed  to  be  free, 
but  where  a  few  men  in  each  town  own 

189 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


everything  and  everybody  politically. 
The  American  thinks  he  is  free,  but  he 
has  in  reality  no  more  freedom  than  the 
Englishman;  in  fact,  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  the  latter  is  the  freest  of  them 
all,  and  I  doubt  if  too  much  freedom  is 
good  for  man.  Politics  in  America  is  a 
profession,  a  trade,  a  science,  a  perfect 
system  by  which  one  or  two  men  run  or 
control  millions.  Politics  means  the  at- 
tainment of  political  power  and  influ- 
ence, which  mean  office.  Some  men  are 
in  politics  for  the  love  of  power,  some  for 
spoils  ("graft"  they  call  it  in  slang),  and 
some  for  the  high  offices.  In  America 
there  are  two  large  parties,  the  Repub- 
lican and  the  Democratic.  Then  there 
are  the  Labor,  Prohibition  (non-drink- 
ing), and  various  other  parties,  which, 
in  the  language  of  politics,  "cut  no  ice." 
The  real  issues  of  a  party  are  often  lost 

sight  of.    The  Republicans  may  be  said 
190 


THE     POLITICAL     BOSS 


to  favor  a  high  tariff;  the  Democrats  a 
low  tariff  or  free  trade;  and  when  there 
is  not  sufficient  to  amuse  the  people  in 
these,  then  other  reasons  for  being  a  Dem- 
ocrat or  a  Republican  are  raised,  and  a 
platform  is  issued.  Lately  the  Democrats 
have  espoused  "free  silver,"  and  the  Re- 
publicans have  "buried"  them.  The 
Democrats  are  now  trying  to  invent  some 
new  "platform";  but  the  Republicans 
appear  to  have  included  about  all  the  de- 
sirable things  in  their  platform,  and 
hence  they  win. 

In  a  small  town  one  or  two  men  are 
known  as  "bosses."  They  control  the  sit- 
uation at  the  primaries;  they  manage  to 
get  elected  and  keep  before  the  people. 
Generally  they  are  natural  leaders,  and 
fill  some  office.  When  the  senator  comes 
to  town  they  "escort"  him  about  and  ad- 
vise him  as  to  the  votes  he  may  expect. 
Sometimes  the  ward  man  is  the  postmas- 

191 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


ter,  sometimes  a  national  congressman, 
again  a  State  senator;  but  he  is  always  in 
evidence,  and  before  the  people,  a  good 
speaker  and  talker  and  the  "boss."  Every 
town  has  its  Republican  and  Democratic 
"boss,"  always  striving  to  increase  the 
vote,  always  striving  for  something.  The 
larger  the  city,  the  larger  the  "boss,"  until 
we  come  to  a  city  like  New  York,  where 
we  find,  or  did  find,  Boss  Tweed,  who 
absolutely  controlled  the  political  situa- 
tion for  years. 

This  means  that  he  was  in  politics,  and 
manipulated  all  the  offices  in  order  to 
steal  for  himself  and  his  friends;  this  is 
of  public  record.  He  was  overthrown  or 
exposed  by  the  citizens,  but  was  followed 
by  others,  who  manipulated  the  affairs 
of  the  city  for  money.  Offices  were  sold ; 
any  one  who  had  a  position  either  bought 
it  or  paid  a  percentage  for  it.  Gambling- 
dens  and  other  "resorts"  paid  large  sums 
192 


THE     POLITICAL     BOSS 


to  "sub-bosses,"  who  become  rich,  and  if 
the  full  history  of  some  of  the  "bosses"  of 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Chicago,  or 
any  great  American  city  could  be  ex- 
posed, it  would  show  a  state  of  affairs  that 
would  display  the  American  politician 
in  a  dark  light.  Repeatedly  the  machina- 
tions of  the  politicians  have  been  exposed, 
yet  they  doubtless  go  on  in  some  form. 
And  this  is  true  to  some  extent  of  the 
Government.  The  honor  of  no  Presi- 
dent has  been  impugned ;  they  are  men 
of  integrity,  but  the  enormous  appoint- 
ing power  which  they  have  is  a  mere 
form;  they  do  not  and  could  not  appoint 
many  men.  The  little  "boss"  in  some 
town  desires  a  position.  He  has  been  a  spy 
for  the  congressman  or  senator  for  years, 
and  now  aspires  to  office.  He  obtains 
the  influence  of  the  senator  and  the  con- 
gressman, and  is  supported  by  a  petition 
of  his  friends,  and  the  President  names 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


him  for  the  office,  taking  the  senator  for 
his  sponsor.  If  the  man  becomes  a 
grafter  or  thief,  the  President  is  attacked 
by  the  opposition. 

In  a  large  city  like  New  York  each 
ward  will  have  its  "boss,"  who  will  report 
to  a  supreme  "boss,"  and  by  this  system, 
often  pernicious,  the  latter  acquires  ab- 
solute control  of  the  situation.  He  names 
the  candidates  for  office,  or  most  of  them, 
and  is  all  powerful.  I  have  met  a  num- 
ber of  "bosses,"  and  all,  it  happened,  were 
Irish;  indeed,  the  Irish  dominate  Amer- 
ican politics.  One,  a  leader  of  Tam- 
many in  New  York,  was  a  most  prepos- 
terous person,  well  dressed,  but  not  a 
gentleman  from  any  standpoint;  igno- 
rant so  far  as  education  goes,  yet  su- 
premely sharp  in  politics.  Such  a  man 
could  not  have  led  a  fire  brigade  in 
China,  yet  he  was  the  leader  of  thou- 
sands, and  controlled  Democratic  New 
194 


THE     POLITICAL     BOSS 


York  for  years.  He  never  held  office,  I 
was  told,  yet  grew  very  rich. 

The  Republican  "boss"  was  a  tall,  thin, 
United  States  senator.  I  was  also  intro- 
duced to  him — a  Mephistophelian  sort  of 
an  individual — to  me  utterly  without  any 
attraction;  but  I  was  informed  that  he 
carried  the  vote  of  the  Republican  party 
in  his  "pocket.  How?  that  is  the  mys- 
tery. If  you  desired  office  you  went  to 
him;  without  his  influence  one  was  im- 
potent. Thousands  of  office-holders  felt 
his  power,  hated  him,  perhaps,  but  did 
not  dare  to  say  it. 

The  "boss"  controls  the  situation,  gives 
and  "takes,"  and  the  other  citizens  get 
the  satisfaction  of  thinking  they  are  a 
free  people.  In  reality,  they  are  political 
slaves,  and  the  "boss,"  "sub-boss,"  and  the 
long  line  of  smaller  "bosses"  are  their 
masters.  Very  much  the  same  situation  is 
seen  in  national  politics.  The  party  is 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


controlled  by  a  "boss,"  and  at  the  present 
this  personage  is  a  millionaire,  named 
Hanna,  said  to  be  an  honest,  upright 
man,  with  a  genius  for  political  diplo- 
macy, a  puller  of  wires,  a  maker  of  Pres- 
idents, having  virtually  placed  President 
McKinley  where  he  is.  This  man  I  met. 
Many  of  the  politicians  called  him  "Un- 
cle Mark."  He  has  a  familiar  way  with 
reporters.  He  is  a  man  of  good  size, 
with  a  face  of  a  rather  common  type, 
with  very  large  and  protruding  ears,  but 
two  bright,  gleaming  eyes,  that  tell  of 
genius,  force,  intelligence,  power,  and 
executive  talents  of  an  exalted  order.  I 
recall  but  one  other  such  pair  of  eyes, 
and  those  were  in  the  head  of  Senator 
James  G.  Elaine,  whom  I  saw  during  my 
first  visit  to  America.  Hanna  is  famous 
for  his  bonhomie,  and  is  a  fine  story- 
teller. Indeed,  unless  a  man  can  tell 
stones  he  had  better  remain  out  of  poli- 
196 


THE     POLITICAL     BOSS 


tics,  or  rather  he  will  never  get  into  poli- 
tics. 

As  an  outsider  I  should  say  that  the 
power  of  the  "boss"  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  best  classes  will  have  none  of 
him,  as  a  rule  (I  refer  to  the  ordinary 
"boss"),  and  as  a  consequence  he  and  his 
henchmen  control  the  situation.  I  think 
I  am  not  overstating  the  truth  when  I 
say  that  every  city  in  the  United  States 
has  been  looted  by  the  politicians  of  va- 
rious parties.  It  is  of  public  record  that 
Philadelphia,  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  and 
New  York  citizens  have  repeatedly  risen 
and  shown  that  the  city  was  being  robbed 
in  the  most  bare-handed  manner.  Bri- 
bery and  corruption  have  been  found  to 
exist  to-day  in  the  entire  system,  and  if 
the  credit  of  the  republic  stands  on  its 
political  morale  this  vast  union  of  States 
is  a  colossal  failure,  as  it  is  being  pil- 
laged by  politicians.  Every  "boss"  has 
14  197 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


what  are  termed  "heelers,"  one  function 
of  whom  is  to  buy  votes  and  do  other 
work  in  the  interest  of  "reform."  A 
friend  told  me  that  he  spent  election  day 
in  the  office  of  a  candidate  for  Congress 
in  a  certain  Western  town,  and  the  can- 
didate had  his  safe  heaped  full  of  silver 
dollars.  All  day  long  men  were  coming 
and  going,  each  taking  the  dollars  to  buy 
votes.  By  night  the  supply  was  ex- 
hausted, and  the  man  defeated.  I 
expressed  satisfaction  at  this,  but  my 
friend  laughed;  the  other  fellow  who 
won  paid  more  for  votes,  he  said.  I  was 
told  that  all  the  great  senatorial  battles 
were  merely  a  question  of  dollars;  the 
man  with  the  largest  "sack"  won. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  senators 
who  not  only  never  paid  for  a  vote  but 
never  expressed  a  wish  to  be  elected. 
The  foreign  vote — Italians  and  others — 
are  swayed  by  cash  considerations;  the 
198 


THE     POLITICAL     BOSS 


negroes  are  bought  and  sold  politically. 
The  "bosses"  handle  the  money,  and  the 
senators  consider  it  as  "expenses,"  and 
doubtless  do  not  know  that  some  of  it  has 
been  used  to  influence  legislators.  The 
Americans  have  a  remarkable  network  of 
laws  to  prevent  fraudulent  voting.  Each 
candidate  in  some  States  is  required  to 
swear  to  an  expense  account,  yet  the  wary 
politician,  with  his  "ways  that  are  dark," 
evades  the  law.  The  entire  system,  the 
control  of  the  political  fortunes  of  80,- 
000,000  Americans,  is  in  the  hands  of  a 
small  army  of  political  "bosses,"  some  of 
whom,  had  they  figured  as  grafters  in 
"effete"  China,  would  have  been  be- 
headed without  mercy. 


199 


CHAPTER   XII 

EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA 

A  FUNDAMENTAL  idea  with  the  Amer- 
ican is  to  educate  children.  This  is  car- 
ried to  the  extent  of  making  it  an  offense 
not  to  send  those  above  a  certain  age  to 
school,  while  State  or  town  officers, 
called  "truant  police,"  are  on  the  alert  to 
arrest  all  such  children  who  are  not  in 
school.  The  following  was  told  me  by 
a  Government  official  in  Washington, 
who  had  obtained  it  from  a  well-known 
literary  man  who  witnessed  the  incident. 
The  literary  man  was  invited  to  visit  a 
Boston  school  of  the  lower  grade,  where 
he  found  the  teacher,  an  attractive  wom- 
an, engaged  in  teaching  a  class  of  "young- 
sters," the  progeny  of  the  working  class. 
After  the  visitor  had  listened  to  the 
200 


EDUCATION    IN    AMERICA 


recitations  for  some  time,  he  remarked 
to  the  teacher,  "How  do  you  account  for 
the  neatness  and  cleanliness  of  these  chil- 
dren?" "Oh,  I  insist  upon  it,"  was  the 
reply.  "The  Board  of  Education  does  not 
anticipate  all  the  desiderata,  but  I  make 
them  come  clean  and  make  it  a  part  of 
the  course;"  then  rising  and  tapping  on 
the  table,  she  said,  "Prepare  for  the  sixth 
exercise."  All  the  children  stood  up. 
"One,"  said  the  teacher,  whereupon  each 
pupil  took  out  a  clean  cloth  handker- 
chief. "Two,"  counted  the  teacher,  and 
with  one  concerted  blast  every  pupil  blew 
his  or  her  nose  in  clarion  notes.  "Three," 
came  again  after  a  few  seconds,  and  the 
handkerchiefs  were  replaced.  At  "four" 
the  student  body  sank  back  to  their  seats 
without  even  smiling,  or  without  having 
"cracked  a  smile."  You  could  search  the 
world  over  and  not  find  a  prototype.  It 
goes  without  saying  that  the  teacher  was 

201 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


a  wit  and  wag,  but  the  lesson  of  handker- 
chiefs and  their  use  was  inculcated. 

Education  is  a  part  of  the  scheme  to 
make  all  Americans  equal.  A  more 
splendid  system  it  is  impossible  to  con- 
ceive. Every  possible  facility  is  afforded 
the  poorest  family  to  educate  their  chil- 
dren. Public  schools  loom  up  every- 
where, and  are  increased  as  rapidly  as 
the  children,  so  there  is  no  excuse  for 
ignorance.  The  schools  are  graded,  and 
there  is  no  expense  or  fee.  The  parents 
pay  a  tax,  a  small  sum,  those  who  have  no 
children  being  taxed  as  well  as  those  who 
have  many.  There  are  schools  to  train 
boys  to  any  trade;  normal  free  schools 
to  make  teachers ;  night  schools  for  work- 
ing boys;  commercial  schools  to  educate 
clerks;  ship  schools  to  train  sailors  and 
engineers.  Then  come  the  great  univer- 
sities, in  part  free,  with  all  the  splendid 
paraphernalia,  some  being  State  institu- 
202 


EDUCATION    IN    AMERICA 


dons  and  others  memorials  of  dead  mil- 
lionaires. Then  there  are  the  great  tech- 
nical schools,  as  well  as  universities 
(where  one  can  study  Chinese,  if  de- 
sired). There  are  schools  of  art,  law, 
medicine,  nature,  forestry,  sculpture; 
schools  to  teach  one  how  to  write,  how  to 
dress,  how  to  eat,  and  how  to  keep  well; 
schools  to  teach  one  how  to  write  ad- 
vertisements, to  cultivate  the  memory,  to 
grow  strong;  schools  for  shooting,  box- 
ing, fencing;  schools  for  nurses  and 
cooks;  summer  schools;  winter  schools. 

And  yet  the  American  is  not  pro- 
foundly educated.  He  has  too  much 
within  his  reach.  I  have  been  distinctly 
surprised  at  crude  specimens  I  have  met 
who  were  graduates  of  great  universi- 
ties. The  well-educated  Englishman, 
German,  and  American  are  different 
things.  The  American  is  far  behind  in 
the  best  sense,  which  I  am  inclined  to 

203 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


think  is  due  to  the  teachers.  Any  one  can 
get  through  a  normal  school  and  become 
a  teacher  who  can  pass  the  examination, 
and  I  have  seen  some  singular  instances. 
If  all  the  teachers  were  obliged  to  pass 
examinations  in  culture,  refinement,  and 
the  art  of  conveying  knowledge,  there 
would  be  a  falling  of  pedagogic  heads. 
The  free  and  over  education  of  the  poor 
places  them  at  once  above  their  parents. 
They  are  free,  and  the  daughter  of  a 
ditch  laborer,  whose  wife  is  a  floor  scrub- 
ber, upon  being  educated  is  ashamed  of 
her  parents,  learns  to  play  the  piano,  apes 
the  rich,  and  is  at  least  unhappy. 

The  result  is,  there  remains  no  peasant 
class.  The  effect  of  education  on  the 
country  boy  is  to  make  him  despise  the 
farm  and  go  to  the  city,  to  become  a  clerk 
and  ape  the  fashions  of  the  wealthy  at 
six  or  eight  dollars  a  week.  He  has  been 
educated  up  to  the  standard  of  his  "boss" 
204 


EDUCATION    IN    AMERICA 


and  to  be  his  equal.  The  overeducation 
of  the  poor  is  a  heartless  thing.  The 
women  vie  with  the  men,  and  as  a  result 
women  graduates,  taking  positions  at 
half  the  price  that  men  demand,  crowd 
them  out  of  the  fields  of  skilled  labor, 
whereas  the  man,  not  crowded  out, 
should,  normally,  marry  the  girl.T  In 
power,  strength,  and  progress  the  Amer- 
ican nation  stands  first  in  the  world,  and 
all  this  may  be  due  to  splendid  educa- 
tional facilities.  But  this  is  not  every- 
thing. There  result  strife,  unhappiness, 
envy,  and  a  craze  for  riches.  I  do  not 
think  the  Americana  as  a  race  are  as 
happy  as  the  Chinese.!  Religious  denom- 
inations try  to  have^their  own  schools, 
so  that  children  shall  not  be  captured  by 
other  denominations.  Thus  the  Roman 
Catholics  have  parochial  schools,  under 
priests  and  sisters,  and  colleges  of  va- 
rious grades.  They  oppose  the  use  of  the 

205 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


Bible  in  the  public  school,  and  in  some 
States  their  influence  has  helped  to  sup- 
press its  use.  The  Quakers,  with  a  fol- 
lowing of  only  eighty  thousand,  have  col- 
leges and  schools.  The  Methodists  have 
universities,  as  have  the  Presbyterians, 
Episcopalians,  and  others.  All  denomi- 
nations have  institutions  of  learning. 
These  schools  are  in  the  hands  of  clergy- 
men, and  are  often  endowed  or  supported 
by  wealthy  members  of  the  denomina- 
tion. 

A  remarkable  feature  of  American  life 
is  the  college  of  correspondence.  A  man 
or  firm  advertises  to  teach  by  corre- 
spondence at  so  much  a  month.  Many 
branches  are  taught,  and  if  the  student  is 
in  earnest  a  certain  amount  of  informa- 
tion can  thus  be  accumulated.  Among 
the  people  I  have  met  I  have  observed  a 
lack  of  what  I  term  full,  broad  educa- 
tion, producing  a  well-rounded  mind, 
206 


EDUCATION    IN    AMERICA 


which  is  rare  except  among  the  class  that 
stands  first  in  America — the  refined,  cul- 
tured, educated  man  of  an  old  family, 
who  is  the  product  of  many  generations. 
The  curriculum  of  the  high  school  in 
America  would  in  China  seem  sufficient 
to  equip  a  student  for  any  position  in 
diplomatic  life;  but  I  have  found  that  a 
majority  of  graduates  become  clerks  in 
a  grocery  or  in  other  shops,  car  con- 
ductors, or  commercial  travelers,  where 
Latin,  Greek,  and  other  higher  studies 
are  absolutely  useless.  The  brightest 
educational  sign  I  see  in  America  is  the 
attention  given  to  manual  training.  In 
schools  boys  are  taught  some  trade  or  are 
allowed  to  experiment  in  the  trades  in 
order  to  find  out  their  natural  bent,  so  that 
the  boy  can  be  educated  with  his  future 
in  view.  As  a  result  of  education,  women 
appear  in  nearly  every  field  except  that 
of  .manual  labor  on  farms,  which  is 

207 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


performed    in    America    only    by    alien 
women. 

The  richest  men  in  America  to-day, 
the  multi-millionaires,  are  not  the  prod- 
uct of  the  universities,  but  mainly  of 
the  public  schools.  Carnegie,  Rockefel- 
ler, Schwab,  men  of  the  great  steel  com- 
bine, the  oil  magnates,  the  great  railway 
magnates,  the  great  mine  owners,  were 
all  men  of  limited  education  at  the  be- 
ginning. Among  great  merchants,  how- 
ever, the  university  man  is  found,  and 
among  the  Harvard  and  Yale  graduates, 
for  example,  may  be  found  some  of 
America's  most  distinguished  men.  But 
Lincoln,  the  martyred  President,  had  the 
most  limited  education,  and  among  pub- 
lic men  the  majority  have  been  the 
product  of  the  public  school,  which  sug- 
gests that  great  men  are  natural  geniuses, 
who  will  attain  prominence  despite  the 
lack  of  education.  The  best-educated 
208 


EDUCATION    IN    AMERICA 


men  in  America  to  my  mind  are  the  grad- 
uates of  West  Point  and  Annapolis,  the 
military  and  naval  academies.  These  two 
institutions  are  extremely  rigorous,  and 
are  open  to  the  most  humble  citizens. 
They  so  transform  men  in  four  years  that 
people  would  hardly  recognize  them. 
The  result  is  a  highly  educated,  refined, 
cultivated,  practical  man,  with  a  high 
sense  of  honor  and  patriotism.  If  Amer- 
ica would  have  a  school  of  this  kind  in 
every  State  there  would  be  no  limit  to 
her  power  in  two  decades. 

Despite  education,  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  are  superficial;  they  have  a 
smattering  of  this  and  that.  An  em- 
ployer of  several  thousand  men  told  the 
Superintendent  of  Education  of  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  that  he  had  selected 
the  brightest  boy  graduate  of  a  high 
school  for  a  position  which  required  only 
a  knowledge  of  simple  arithmetic.  The 

209 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


graduate  proved  to  be  totally  unfit  for 
the  position  and  was  discharged.  Later 
he  became  the  driver  of  a  team  of  horses. 
America  abounds  in  thousands  of  edu- 
cational institutions,  yet  there  is  not  one 
so  well  endowed  that  it  can  say  to  the 
world  we  wish  no  more  money.  It  is 
singular  that  some  multi-millionaire  does 
not  grasp  this  opportunity  to  donate  one 
hundred  millions  to  a  great  national 
school  or  university,  to  be  placed  at 
Washington,  where  the  buildings  would 
all  be  lessons  in  architecture  of  marble 
after  the  plans  of  a  world's  fair.  In- 
stead they  leave  a  few  thousands  here  and 
a  few  there.  Carnegie,  the  leading  mil- 
lionaire, gives  libraries  to  cities  all  over 
the  States,  each  of  which  bears  the  name 
of  the  giver.  The  object  is  too  obvious, 
and  is  cheap  in  conception.  In  San 
Francisco  some  years  ago  a  citizen  tried 
the  same  experiment.  He  proposed  to 
210 


EDUCATION    IN    AMERICA 


give  the  city  a  large  number  of  fountains. 
When  they  were '  finished  each  one  was 
seen  to  be  surmounted  by  his  own  statue. 
A  few  were  put  up,  how  many  I  do  not 
recall,  but  one  night  some  citizens  waited 
on  a  statue,  fastened  a  rope  to  its  neck, 
and  hauled  it  down.  So  peculiar  are  the 
Americans  that  I  believe  if  Mr.  Carnegie 
should  place  his  name  on  ten  thousand 
libraries,  with  the  object  of  attaining  un- 
dying fame,  the  people,  by  a  concerted 
effort,  would  forget  all  about  him  in  a 
few  decades.  Such  an  attempt  does  not 
appeal  to  any  side  of  the  American  char- 
acter. I  have  known  the  best  Americans, 
but  Mr.  Carnegie  has  not  known  the  best 
of  his  own  countrymen  or  he  would  not 
attempt  to  perpetuate  his  memory  in  this 
way. 


211 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY 

AMONG  the  most  delightful  people  I 
have  met  in  America  are  the  army  and 
navy  officers,  graduates  of  West  Point 
and  Annapolis,  well-bred,  cultivated 
men,  patriotic,  open-hearted,  and  chival- 
rous. They  are  like  our  own  class  of 
men  who  answer  to  the  American  term 
of  gentlemen.  I  am  not  going  to  tell  you 
of  their  splendid  ships,  their  training  or 
uniform,  but  of  a  few  of  their  idiosyn- 
crasies. There  is  no  dueling  in  the 
army.  If  two  men  have  trouble  at  the 
academies  they  fight  it  out  with  bare 
fists,  and  in  the  army  settle  it  in  some 
other  way,  dueling  being  forbidden. 
Owing  to  the  fact  that  all  men  are  equal 
in  America,  the  attitude  of  the  officer  to 
212 


THE    ARMY   AND    NAVY 


the  civilian  is  entirely  different.  If  a 
civilian  strikes  an  officer  in  Germany  the 
latter  will  cut  him  down  with  his  saber 
and  be  protected  in  it,  but  here  the  man 
would  be  arrested  and  treated  as  any 
other  criminal;  in  a  word,  the  officer  is 
a  servant  of  the  people,  and  stands  with 
them.  He  has  been  trained  to  treat  his 
men  well,  and  they  respect  him.  But 
while  the  officer  is  the  people's  servant 
and  his  salary  in  some  part  is  paid  by  the 
humblest  grocer's  clerk,  laborer,  or  ar- 
tisan, the  officer  has  a  social  position 
which,  in  the  eyes  of  himself  and  the 
Government,  makes  him  the  social  equal 
of  kings  and  emperors;  and  here  we  see 
a  strange  fact  in  American  life. 

When  a  garrison  is  ordered  to  a  town 
or  city,  people  call  to  pay  their  respects. 
The  grocer,  who  in  being  taxed  aids  in 
paying  the  officer's  salary,  is  persona  non 
gratia.  The  grocer,  milk  dealer,  shoe 
15  2I3 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


dealer,  and  retail  dealers  in  general  might 
call,  but  would  not  be  received  on  cordial 
terms.  The  wife  of  the  colonel  might  re- 
turn the  call  of  the  grocer's  wife  if  she 
made  a  good  appearance,  but  the  latter 
would  under  no  circumstances  be  invited 
to  a  function  at  the  camp  or  post.  The 
undertaker,  the  dentist,  the  ice-man,  the 
retail  shoe  man  are  under  the  ban.  Cer- 
tain kinds  of  business  appear  to  have 
certain  social  rights.  Thus  a  dentist 
would  not  be  received,  but  the  man  who 
manufactures  dentists'  tools  may  be  a 
leader  among  the  "Four  Hundred." 

Strange  complications  arise.  A  young 
officer  fell  in  love  with  a  sergeant's 
daughter,  and  married  her,  as  I  learned 
from  a  well-known  officer  at  the  Army 
and  Navy  Club.  This  was  serious 
enough,  as  there  could  be  no  intimacy 
between  a  commissioned  and  non-com- 
missioned officer.  The  young  man  and 
214 


THE    ARMY   AND    NAVY 


his  bride  were  ordered  to  a  distant  post, 
where  the  story  of  course  followed  them. 
All  went  well  for  a  time.  The  bride  sank 
her  social  inferiority  in  the  rank  of  her 
husband,  and  the  ladies  of  the  post  called 
on  her,  not  as  the  sergeant's  daughter  but 
as  the  officer's  wife.  The  mother  of  the 
bride  finally  decided  to  visit  her,  and 
thus  became  the  guest  of  the  officer,  who 
was  a  lieutenant.  Under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances it  was  the  duty  of  all  the 
ladies  to  call  on  the  mother  of  the  lieu- 
tenant's wife;  but  it  so  happened  that  she 
was  the  wife  of  a  sergeant,  and  hence  to 
call  was  impossible.  No  one  did  so. 

The  young  wife  felt  herself  insulted, 
and  the  ubiquitous  reporter  seized  upon 
the  situation,  until  it  was  taken  up  by 
every  paper  in  the  country.  The  pictures 
of  mother,  daughter,  and  sergeant  were 
shown,  and  columns  were  written  on  the 

subject.    Almost  to  a  man  the  editors  de- 

215 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


nounced  what  they  termed  the  snobbish- 
ness of  the  army,  and  denounced  West 
Point  for  producing  snobs,  claiming  that 
the  ladies  of  the  post,  had  they  been  real 
ladies,  would  have  called  on  a  respectable 
laundress  even  if  she  had  been  the  ser- 
geant's wife.  I  refer  to  this  to  show  the 
intricacies  of  American  etiquette.  The 
point  is  that  nearly  all  the  editors  who 
knew  anything,  believed  that  the  ladies 
were  right,  but  did  not  dare  to  say  so  on 
account  of  the  fact  that  the  majority  of 
their  readers  felt  themselves  the  equals 
of  the  army  officer;  hence  the  cry  of 
snobbery  that  went  whistling  over  the 
land.  The  lieutenant  committed  a  gross 
mistake  in  marrying  the  girl;  he  married 
out  of  his  class.  But  in  America  I  am 
told  there  are  no  classes,  and  I  am  con- 
stantly forgetting  this. 

In  the  army  there  are  several  black 
regiments   (negroes).     They  have  black 
216 


THE    ARMY   AND    NAVY 


chaplains,  and  attempts  have  been  made 
to  find  black  officers,  but  the  social  diffi- 
culties make  this  impossible,  though  the 
blacks  are  free  and  independent  citizens 
and  help  pay  the  salaries  of  the  white 
men.  It  would  be  impossible  to  force 
white  soldiers  to  admit  to  their  regiment 
black  soldiers.  No  white  man  would  per- 
mit a  black  officer  to  be  placed  over  him, 
even  by  inference. 

In  the  navy  we  see  an  entirely  differ- 
ent situation.  On  every  ship  are  negroes 
in  the  crew,  sleeping  on  the  same  gun- 
decks  with  the  white  men,  and  no  fault 
is  found;  but  a  negro  officer  would  be 
an  impossibility.  Though  several  have 
been  sent  to  the  Naval  Academy,  none 
have  "gone  through."  Even  in  these  al- 
most perfect  institutions  favoritism  exists. 
To  illustrate:  the  son  of  a  prominent 
man  was  about  to  fail  in  his  examina- 
tions, when  the  powers  that  be  passed  the 

217 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


word  thai  he  must  pass,  nolens  volens. 
The  professor  in  whose  class  he  was  and 
who  had  found  him  deficient  resented 
this,  and  when  he  learned  that  it  was  the 
intention  to  pass  the  boy  over  his  head 
he  resigned  and  was  ordered  to  his  regi- 
ment. The  young  man  was  graduated, 
entered  the  army  and,  aided  by  influence, 
jumped  many  of  his  class  men  and  finally 
acquired  rank  at  the  request  of  the  wife 
of  one  of  the  Presidents.  This  was  a  very 
exceptional  case,  the  result  of  strong  na- 
tional sentiment  that  favored  the  father. 
The  management  of  the  army  does  not 
seem  rational  to  a  foreigner.  To  pre- 
serve the  idea  of  republican  simplicity 
and  equality,  army  men  are  not  rewarded 
with  orders,  as  in  other  countries,  which 
is  a  great  injustice.  Few  officers,  though 
veterans  of  many  wars,  wear  medals,  and 
when  they  do  they  were  not  given  as  re- 
wards for  bravery,  but  are  merely  corps 
218 


THE    ARMY   AND    NAVY 


badges,  showing  that  the  officer  belongs 
to  this  or  that  army  corps.  But  if  an 
officer  does  a  brave  deed  he  may  be  pro- 
moted several  points  over  his  fellows,  as 
brave  as  he,  but  who  did  not  have  the 
same  opportunity  to  show  bravery.  Ill 
feeling  may  be  the  result.  Every  man 
is  expected  to  be  brave,  and  extraordinary 
examples  of  bravery  are  recognized  in 
other  nations  by  the  presentation  of 
medals,  the  possession  of  which  creates 
no  ill  feeling.  The  actual  head  of  the 
army  is  the  Secretary  of  War,  a  political 
appointment,  an  adviser  selected  by  the 
President,  who,  usually,  has  no  military 
knowledge.  This  officer  gives  all  the  or- 
ders to  the  general  of  the  army,  and,  as 
in  a  recent  instance,  a  vast  amount  of 
friction  has  been  the  result.  Intense  feel- 
ing was  occasioned  by  the  elevation  of 
certain  officers,  who  were  supposed  to 
possess  remarkable  executive  ability. 

219 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


Civil  war  veterans  at  the  Army  and 
Navy  Club  complained  to  an  acquaint- 
ance of  mine  that  when  they  arrived  at 
the  seat  of  war  in  Cuba  they  found  their 
superior  officers  to  be,  first,  General 
Wheeler,  an  ex-Confederate,  against 
whom  they  had  fought  in  the  civil  war; 
second,  Colonel  Wood,  who  had  been  a 
contract  army  surgeon  under  nearly  all 
of  them;  and  finally,  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Roosevelt,  who  was  a  babe  in  arms  when 
they  were  fighting  the  battles  of  the  civil 
war.  This  story  serves  to  illustrate  the 
point  that  political  "pulls"  and  favoritism 
are  rampant  in  the  service,  and  are  the 
cause  of  much  disgust  among  officers. 
General  Funston  affords  an  illustration 
that  has  incensed  many  officers.  Funston 
was  an  unknown  man,  who  captured 
Aguinaldo  by  a  clever  ruse,  a  valuable 
and  courageous  piece  of  work,  which 
should  have  been  rewarded  with  a  dec- 
220 


THE    ARMY   AND    NAVY 


oration  and  some  promotion;  but  he  was 
jumped  over  the  heads  of  hundreds, 
landing  at  the  top  of  the  army  in  one 
"fell  swoop."  I  judge  the  policy  of  the 
Government  to  be  to  promote  officers  so 
soon  as  they  show  evidence  of  extraor- 
dinary capability. 

It  would  be  an  easy  matter  for  any 
one  to  obtain  photographs  of  plans  and 
sketches  of  American  fortifications.  One 
of  my  friends  hired  a  photographer  to 
get  up  what  he  called  a  scrap-book  of 
pictures  to  take  home  to  his  family  in 
Tokio  in  order  to  "entertain  his  people." 
The  photographer  sent  him  a  wonderful 
series,  showing  the  forts  overlooking  New 
York  harbor,  interiors  and  exteriors; 
and  those  in  Boston,  Portland,  Baltimore, 
Fort  Monroe,  Key  West,  and  San  Fran- 
cisco were  also  obtained.  Photographs  of 
guns  and  charts,  which  can  be  purchased 

everywhere,  were  included,  as  well  as 

221 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


Government  reports.  If  Japan  ever  goes 
to  war  with  the  Yankees  my  friend's 
scrap-book  will  be  in  demand.  I  do  not 
believe  the  American  War  Department 
makes  any  secret  of  the  forts.  They  are 
open  to  the  public.  Even  if  a  kodak 
were  not  permitted,  pictures  could  be  se- 
cured. My  friend  said  his  photographer 
had  a  kodak  which  he  wore  inside  his 
vest,  the  opening  protruding  from  a  but- 
ton-hole. All  he  had  to  do  was  to  stand 
in  front  of  an  object  and  pull  a  cord. 
Such  a  kodak  is  known  as  a  "detective 
camera."  There  are  several  designs,  all 
very  clever.  I  once  saw  my  face  repro- 
duced in  a  paper,  and  until  I  heard  about 
this  camera  it  was  a  mystery  how  the 
original  was  obtained,  as  I  had  not 
"posed"  for  any  one. 

The  possibility  of  America  going  to 
war  with  another  nation  is  remote.  From 
what  I  see  of  the  people  and  their  tre- 

222 


THE    ARMY   AND    NAVY 


mendous  activity  they  could  not  be  de- 
feated by  any  nation  or  combination  of 
nations.  They  are  like  Senator  -  — 's 
Malay  game-cock,  of  which  the  senator 
has  said  that  there  is  only  one  trouble 
with  him — the  bird  never  knows  when 
he  is  licked,  and  if  he  does  he  does  not 
stay  licked.  America  could  raise  an 
army  of  ten  or  twelve  millions  of  the 
finest  fighters  in  the  world  for  defense 
against  any  combination,  and  she  would 
win.  The  senator  told  me  a  story,  which 
illustrates  the  situation.  One  of  the 
American  men-of-war  in  a  Malay  port 
had  an  old  American  eagle  aboard  as  a 
mascot  and  pet.  When  the  men  got  lib- 
erty they  went  ashore  with  the  eagle,  and 
showed  it  as  an  "American  game-cock." 
The  natives  wanted  to  arrange  a  match, 
and  finally  one  was  planned,  the  eagle 
cock  against  a  black  Malay.  When  the 
fight  began,  the  black  cock  put  its  spur 

223 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


into  the  eagle  several  times,  the  latter 
doing  nothing  but  eye  the  cock,  first  with 
one  eye,  and  then  with  the  other.  Once 
more  the  black  cock  stabbed  the  eagle, 
bringing  blood,  whereupon  the  eagle 
leaned  forward,  and  as  the  cock  thrust 
out  its  head,  seized  it  with  one  claw, 
pressed  it  to  the  ground,  and  with  the 
other  tore  off  its  head  and  began  to  eat 
it.  This  is  what  would  happen  if  almost 
any  nation  really  and  seriously  went  to 
war  with  the  United  States.  But  the 
country  was  ill  prepared  for  the  war  with 
Spain.  If  Cervera  had  reached  the  New 
England  coast  he  could  have  shelled  Bos- 
ton and  then  New  York. 

Service  in  America  is  not  compulsory. 
It  is  merely  made  popular,  and  as  a  re- 
sult, every  part  of  the  country  has  State 
militia  of  splendidly  drilled  men,  ready 
to  be  called  on  at  a  moment's  notice. 
They  receive  no  pay,  considering  it  an 
224 


THE    ARMY   AND    NAVY 


honor  to  be  in  the  militia  service.  In  the 
regular  army  old  names  are  perpetuated. 
The  great  generals  and  admirals  have 
sent  sons  into  the  service\  Our  Govern- 
ment would  do  well  to  send  young  men 
to  West  Point  and  Annapolis.  The  Jap- 
anese did  this  for  years,  and  received  the 
best  of  their  ideas  from  those  sources. 
There  is  but  one  thing  in  the  way. 
Chinamen  are  tabooed  in  America,  and 
doubtless  would  reach  no  farther  than 
the  port  of  entry.  The  only  way  to  get 
in  now  would  be  for  a  new  minister  or 
diplomat  to  bring  over  ten  or  a  dozen 
young  men  as  members  of  the  suite  and 
then  distribute  them  among  the  schools 
and  universities  —  a  humiliation  that 
China  will  probably  resenty 

Our  trade  with  America  is  extremely 
valuable  to  her.  The  cotton,  flour,  and 
other  commodities  we  import  represent 

a  vast  sum,  and  I  believe  if  we  refused 

225 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


at  once  to  buy  anything  from  America 
we  could  make  our  own  terms  in  less 
than  two  years.  This  could  be  accom- 
plished very  gradually.  The  Americans 
would  find  it  out  first  through  their  con- 
suls, who  are  all  instructed  to  report  on 
every  possible  point  of  vantage  that  can 
be  taken  in  China  by  their  merchants. 
They  would  report  a  decreased  demand. 
American  merchants  would  then  demand 
an  explanation  from  the  Department  of 
State,  and  finally  we  could  announce  that 
we  preferred  to  buy  from  our  friends, 
American  treatment  of  the  Chinese  being 
inimical  to  good  feeling.  Knowing  the 
American  business  men  as  I  do,  you 
could  count  on  a  wail  coming  up  from 
them.  An  appeal  would  be  made  to 
Congress  through  representatives  and 
senators,  the  American  business  men  de- 
manding that  the  "Chinese  matter"  be 
arranged  upon  a  "more  liberal  basis." 
226 


THE   ARMY   AND    NAVY 


When  you  touch  the  pocketbook  of  "Un- 
cle Sam"  you  reach  his  earthquake  cen- 
ter; yet  for  defense,  for  the  preservation 
of  the  national  honor,  this  people  will 
spend  untold  sums.  The  American  Gov- 
ernment bond  is  the  best  security  in  the 
world.  It  is  founded  on  the  rock  of 
honor  and  patriotism.  And  there  is  no 
repudiation  like  that  of  -  — ,  and  none 

like  the  pretended  one  of -1  We  have 

our  faults,  and  it  is  well  to  recognize 
them;  but  I  never  saw  them  until  I  min- 
gled with  the  English  and  Americans. 

There  is  of  course  a  large  foreign  ele- 
ment in  the  American  army — thousands 
of  Irish  and  Germans;  but  this  does  not 
signify,  as  I  learn  that  in  the  State  of 
Massachusetts,  the  stronghold  of  Amer- 
icans, the  Irish  hold  a  third  of  the  offi- 
cial positions,  the  native-born  Yankees 

1  China   has    twice   repudiated   its    Government    bonds   within   four 
centuries. 

227 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


about  one-fourth.  This  is  particularly 
exasperating  to  old  families  in  New  Eng- 
land, as  it  is  notorious  that  the  Irish  come 
directly  from  the  very  dregs  of  the  pov- 
erty-stricken peasantry  —  the  "bog-trot- 
ters." I  was  much  impressed  by  the 
high  standard  of  honor  in  the  army  and 
navy,  and  am  told  that  it  is  the  rarest 
of  occurrences  for  a  regular  army  officer 
to  commit  a  crime  or  to  default.  This  is 
due  to  the  training  received  at  the  mili- 
tary and  naval  schools,  where  young  men 
are  placed  on  their  honor. 


228 


CHAPTER   XIV 

ART  IN  AMERICA 

IT  is  seldom  that  I  have  been  compli- 
mented in  America,  but  a  lady  has  told 
me  that  she  envied  our  uart  sense."  She 
said  the  Chinese  are  essentially  artistic, 
that  the  cheapest  thing,  the  most  ordinary 
article,  is  artistic  or  beautiful.  I  wished 
that  I  could  return  the  compliment,  but 
a  strict  observance  of  the  truth  compels 
me  to  say  that  the  reverse  is  true  in 
America.  If  one  go  into  a  Chinese  shop 
and  ask  for  any  ordinary  article,  it  will 
be  found  artistic.  If  one  go  into  an 
American  shop,  say  a  hardware  "store," 
there  will  not  be  found  an  article  that 
would  be  considered  decorative,  while 
everything  in  a  Chinese  shop  of  like 
character  would  fall  under  this  head. 
16  229 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


The  conclusion  is  that  the  Chinese  are 
artistic,  while  the  Americans  are  not. 

The  reason  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  Chi- 
nese are  homogeneous,  while  the  Amer- 
icans are  a  mixed  race,  that  is  injured  by 
the  continual  introduction  of  baser  ele- 
ments. If  immigration  could  be  stopped 
for  fifty  years,  and  the  people  have  a 
chance  to  acquire  "oneness,"  they  might 
become  artistic.)  The  middle  class,  how- 
ever, is,  from  an  artistic  standpoint,  a 
horror;  they  have  absolutely  no  art  sense, 
and  the  nouveaux  riches  are  often  as  bad. 
The  latter  sometimes  place  their  money 
in  the  hands  of  an  agent,  who  buys  for 
them;  but  all  at  once  a  man  may  break 
out  and  insist  upon  buying  something 
himself,  so  that  in  a  splendid  collection 
of  European  names  will  appear  some 
artistic  horror  to  stamp  the  owner  as  a 
parvenu. 

The  Americans  have  not  produced  a 
230 


ART   IN    AMERICA 


great  painter.  By  this  I  mean  a  really 
great  artist,  nor  have  they  a  great  sculp- 
tor, one  who  is  or  has  been  an  inspira- 
tion. But  they  have  thousands  of  artists, 
and  many  poor  ones  thrive  in  selling 
their  wares.  You  may  see  a  man  with 
an  income  of  thirty  thousand  dollars 
having  paintings  on  his  walls  that  give 
one  the  vertigo.  The  poor  artist  has 
taken  him  in,  or  "pulled  his  leg,"  to  use 
the  latest  American  slang.  There  are 
some  fine  paintings  in  America.  I  have 
visited  the  great  collections  in  Boston, 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Washington, 
Chicago,  and  those  in  many  private  gal- 
leries, but  the  best  of  the  pictures  are  al- 
ways from  England,  France,  Germany, 
and  other  European  countries.  Old  mas- 
ters are  particularly  revered.  Americans 
pay  enormous  sums  for  them,  but  some- 
times are  deceived. 

They  have  art  schools  by  the  hundred, 

231 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


where  they  study  from  the  nude  and 
from  models  of  all  kinds.  There  are 
splendid  museums  of  art,  especially  in 
Boston  and  New  York.  The  art  interests 
are  particularly  active,  but  not  the  peo- 
ple; there  are  a  few  art  lovers  only,  the 
people  in  the  mass  being  hopeless. 
Cheap  prints,  chromos,  and  other  deadly 
things  are  ground  out  by  the  million  and 
sold,  to  clog  still  deeper  the  art  sense  of 
an  inartistic  people.  They  laugh  at  our 
conventional  Chinese  art,  but  the  ex- 
treme of  conventionality  is  certainly  bet- 
ter than  some  of  the  daubs  I  have  seen 
in  American  homes.  Americans  have 
peculiar  fancies  in  art.  One  is  called  Im- 
pressionist Art.  As  near  as  I  can  under- 
stand it,  painters  claim  that  while  you 
are  looking  at  an  object  you  do  not  really 
see  it  all,  you  merely  gain  an  impres- 
sion; so  they  paint  only  the  impression. 
In  a  museum  of  art  I  was  shown  several 
232 


ART    IN    AMERICA 


rooms  full  of  daubs,  having  absolutely 
nothing  to  commend  them,  weird  colors 
being  thrown  together  in  the  strangest 
manner,  without  rhyme  or  reason,  but 
over  which  people  went  mad.  The  great 
masters  of  Europe  appeal  to  me  strongly. 
In  America,  marine  painters  attract  me 
the  most,  for  example,  Edward  Moran, 
who  is  a  splendid  delineator  of  the  sea. 
Bierstadt  is  a  noble  painter,  and  so  is 
Thomas  Moran.  There  are  half  a  hun- 
dred men  who  are  fine  painters,  but  half 
a  thousand  men  and  women  who  think 
they  are  artistic  but  who  are  not. 

Americans  have  developed  no  individ- 
ual architecture.  You  see  semipagoda- 
like  effects  in  the  East,  and  old  English 
houses  in  the  South.  They  steal  the  lat- 
ter and  call  them  Colonial.  They  steal 
the  architecture  of  the  Moors  and  call 
it  Mexican.  They  borrow  Roman  and 
Grecian  effects  for  great  public  build- 

233 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


ings.  At  one  time  they  went  mad  over 
the  French  roof,  or  mansard.  Nowhere 
have  I  seen  purely  American  architec- 
ture. The  race  is  not  possessed  of  suf- 
ficient unity.  So  all  their  art  is  from 
abroad,  and  notably  is  French  and  Eng- 
lish. They  make  broad  effects,  and 
give  them  an  American  name;  but  they 
are  copied  from  the  Dutch  or  Germans. 
All  the  furniture  designers  in  Amer- 
ica are  Europeans.  You  will  find  a 
splendid  house  with  a  Chinese  room, 
having  teak  inlaid  with  ivory,  etc. ;  a 
Japanese  room,  a  Moorish  room,  and 
an  Italian  room,  all  splendidly  deco- 
rated; but  the  family  lives  in  an  "Amer- 
ican room,"  that  is  commonplace  and 
subversive  of  all  art  digestion  and  as- 
similation. The  average  middle-class 
American  knows  absolutely  nothing 
about  art;  the  lower  classes  so  little  that 
their  homes  are  hopeless.  Knowing  this, 
234 


ART   IN    AMERICA 


they  are  preyed  upon  by  thousands  of 
foreign  swindlers.  There  are  hundreds 
of  articles  manufactured  in  Europe  to 
sell  to  the  American  tourist.  I  have  seen 
Napoleonic  furniture  enough  to  load  a 
fleet.  I  can  only  compare  it  to  the  pieces 
of  the  true  cross  and  the  holy  relics  of 
the  Catholics,  of  which  there  are  enough 
to  fill  the  original  ark  which  the  Bible 
tells  the  Americans  landed  on  Mount 
Ararat  in  a  great  flood. 

The  houses  of  the  best  people  I  have 
told  you  about  are  as  far  removed  from 
the  commonplace  as  the  equator  from 
the  poles.  They  are  rich  in  conception, 
sumptuous  in  detail,  artistic  in  every  way, 
and  filled  with  the  art  gems  of  the  world. 
But  these  people  have  descended  from 
refined  people  for  several  generations. 
They  are  the  true  Americans,  but  make 
up  a  small  number  compared  to  the  in- 
artistic whole.  I  believe  America  recog- 

235 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


nizes  this,  and  with  her  stupendous 
energy  is  doing  everything  to  educate  the 
masses  in  art.  They  are  building  splen- 
did museums;  rich  men  give  away  mil- 
lions. There  are  hundreds  of  art  schools, 
free  to  all,  and  art  is  taught  in  all  the 
schools.  Fine  monuments  are  placed  in 
public  squares  and  parks,  and  beautiful 
fountains  and  memorials  in  these  and 
other  public  places.  Their  buildings, 
though  foreign  in  design,  are  beautiful. 
In  Boston  one  may  see  marvelous  work 
in  frescoes,  etc.,  and  in  the  Government 
buildings  at  Washington.  The  Capitol, 
while  not  American  in  design,  is  a 
pile  worthy  of  the  great  people  who 
erected  it. 


236 


CHAPTER   XV 

THE  DARK  SIDE  OF  REPUBLICANISM 

THE  questions  I  know  you  will  wish 
answered  are,  Whether  this  stupendous 
aggregation  of  States  is  a  success?  Does 
it  possess  advantages  beyond  those  of  the 
Chinese  Empire?  Does  it  fulfil  the  ex- 
pectations of  its  own  people?  Frankly, 
I  do  not  consider  myself  competent  to 
answer.  I  have  studied  America  and  the 
Americans  for  many  years  during  my 
visits  to  this  country  and  Europe,  and 
while  I  have  seen  many  accounts  of  the 
country,  written  after  several  months  of 
observation,  I  believe  that  no  just  esti- 
mate of  the  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment can  be  formed  after  such  experi- 
ence. My  private  impression,  however, 
is  that  the  republic  falls  far  short  of  what 

237 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


the  men  in  Washington's  time  expected, 
and  it  is  also  my  private  opinion  that  it 
has  not  so  many  advantages  as  a  govern- 
ment like  that  of  England. 

It  is  too  splendid  an  organization  to 
be  lightly  denounced.  The  idea  of  the 
equality  of  men  is  noble:  and  I  would 
not  wish  to  be  arraigned  among  its  critics. 
There  is  too  much  good  to  offset  the  bad. 
I  have  been  attempting  to  amuse  you  by 
analyzing  the  Americans,  pointing  out 
their  frailties  as  well  as  their  good  qual- 
ities. I  tell  you  what  I  see  as  I  run,  al- 
ways, I  hope,  remembering  what  is  good 
in  this  spontaneous  and  open-hearted  peo- 
ple. The  characteristic  claim  of  the 
people  is  that  the  Government  offers  free- 
dom to  its  citizens ;  yet  every  man  is  quite 
as  free  in  China  if  he  behaves  himself, 
and  he  can  rise  if  he  possesses  brains. 

Any  native-born  citizen  in  the  United 
States  may  become  the  head  of  the  na- 
238  ' 


THE    DARK    SIDE    OF    REPUBLICANISM 

tion  has  he  the  courage  of  his  convic- 
tions, the  many  accomplishments  which 
equip  the  great  leader,  and  should  the 
hour  and  the  man  meet  opportunity. 
This  is  the  one  prize  which  distinguishes 
America  from  England.  The  latter  in 
other  respects  offers  exactly  as  much  free- 
dom with  half  the  wear  and  tear;  in 
fact,  to  me  the  freedom  of  America  is 
one  of  her  disadvantages.  Every  one 
knows,  and  the  American  best  of  all,  that 
all  men  are  not  equal,  never  were  and 
never  can  be.  Yet  this  false  doctrine  is 
their  standard,  and  they  swear  by  it, 
though  some  will  explain  that  what  is 
meant  is  political  freedom.  Freedom  ac- 
counts for  the  gross  impertinence  of  the 
ignorant  and  lower  classes,  the  laughable 
assumptions  of  servants,  and  the  illogical 
pretenses  of  the  nouveau  riche,  which 
make  America  impossible  to  some  peo- 
ple. Cultivated  Americans  are  as  thor- 

239 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


oughly  aristocratic  as  the  nobility  of 
England.  There  are  the  same  classes 
here  as  there.  A  grocer  becomes  rich  and 
retires  or  dies;  his  children  refuse  to  as- 
sociate with  the  families  of  other  gro- 
cers; in  a  word,  the  Americans  have  the 
aristocratic  feeling,  but  they  have  no 
peasant  class ;  the  latter  would  be,  in  their 
own  estimation,  as  good  as  any  one.  One 
class,  the  lower  and  poorer,  is  arraigned 
against  the  upper  and  richer,  and  the  gap 
is  growing  daily. 

But  this  would  not  prove  that  the  re- 
public is  a  failure.  What  then?  It  is, 
in  the  opinion  of  many  of  its  clergymen, 
a  great  moral  failure.  No  nation  in  his- 
tory has  lasted  many  centuries  after  hav- 
ing developed  the  "symptoms"  now 
shown  in  the  United  States.  I  quote 
their  own  press,  "the  States  are  morally 
rotten,"  and  you  have  but  to  turn  to  these 
organs  and  the  magazines  of  the  past  dec- 
240 


THE    DARK    SIDE    OF    REPUBLICANISM 

ade,  which  make  a  feature  of  holding 
up  the  shortcomings  of  cities  and  mil- 
lionaires, to  read  the  details  of  the  trag- 
edy. Thieves  —  grafters  —  have  seized 
upon  the  vitals  of  the  country.  St.  Louis, 
Philadelphia,  New  York,  Chicago,  great 
representative  cities — what  is  their  his- 
tory? The  story  of  dishonesty  among 
officials,  of  bribery,  stealing,  and  every 
possible  crime  that  a  man  can  devise  to 
wring  money  from  the  people.  This  is 
no  secret.  It  has  all  been  exposed  by  the 
friends  of  morality.  City  governments 
are  overthrown,  the  rascals  are  turned 
out,  but  in  a  few  months  the  new  officers 
are  caught  devising  some  new  "grafting" 
operation. 

I  have  it  from  a  prominent  official  that 
there  is  not  an  honest  State  or  city  ad- 
ministration in  America.  What  can  a  na- 
tion say  when  for  years  it  has  known  that 
a  large  and  influential  lobby  has  been 

241 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


maintained  to  influence  statesmen,  a 
lobby  comprising  a  corps  of  "persua- 
ders" in  the  pay  of  business  men?  How 
do  they  influence  them?  The  great  fights 
waged  to  defeat  certain  measures  are  well 
known,  and  it  is  known  that  money  was 
used.  Certain  congressmen  have  been 
notoriously  receptive.  I  have  seen  the 
following  story  in  print  in  many  forms. 
I  took  the  trouble  to  ask  a  well-known 
man  if  it  was  possible  that  it  could  be 
founded  on  fact;  his  reply  was,  "Cer- 
tainly it  is  a  fact."  A  briber  entered  the 
private  room  of  a  congressman.  "Mr. 
— ,  to  come  right  to  the  point,  I  want 

the bill  to  pass,  and  I  will  give  you 

five  hundred  dollars  for  the  vote  and 
your  interest."  The  congressman  rose  to 
his  feet,  purple  with  rage.  "You  dare 
to  offer  me  this  insulting  bribe?  You 
infernal  scoundrel,  I  will  throw  you 
out."  "Well,  suppose  we  make  it  one 
242 


THE   DARK.    SIDE    OF    REPUBLICANISM 

thousand,"  said  the  imperturbable  vis- 
itor. "Well,"  replied  the  congressman, 
cooling  down,  "that  is  a  little  better  put. 
We  will  talk  it  over." 

The  American  Government  had  been 
attempting,  since  1859,  to  build  a  canal 
across  the  Isthmus.  I  believe  surveys 
were  made  earlier  than  that,  but  bribery 
and  corruption  and  "graft"  enabled  the 
friends  of  transcontinental  railroads  to 
stop  the  canals.  It  would  be  a  disad- 
vantage to  the  railroads  to  have  a  canal 
across  the  Isthmus.  So  in  some  mys- 
terious way  the  canal,  which  the  people 
wished,  has  not  been  built,  and  will  not 
be  until  the  people  rise  and  demand 
it.  Corruption  has  stood  on  the  Isthmus 
with  a  flaming  sword  and  struck  down 
every  attempt  to  build  the  canal.  The 
morality  of  the  people  is  low.  Divorce 
is  rampant,  the  daily  journals  are  filled 
with  accounts  of  divorces,  and  daily  lists 

243 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


of  crimes  are  printed  that  would  seem 
impossible  to  a  nation  that  can  raise  mil- 
lions to  send  to  China  to  convert  the 
"heathen."  If  they  would  only  divert 
these  Chinese  missionaries  from  China  to 
their  own  heathen  and  grafters,  but  they 
will  not.  The  peculiar  freedom  of  the 
country,  which  is  nothing  less  than  the 
most  atrocious  license,  tends  to  drag  it 
down. 

The  papers  have  absolutely  no  check 
on  their  freedom.  Men  and  women  are 
attacked  by  them,  ruined,  held  up  to 
scorn  and  ridicule,  and  the  victim  has  no 
recourse  but  to  shoot  the  editor  and  thus 
embroil  himself.  That  it  is  a  crime  to 
ridicule  a  man  and  make  him  the  butt  of 
a  nation  or  the  world  seems  never  to  oc- 
cur to  these  men.  Certain  statesmen  have 
been  so  lampooned  by  the  "hired"  libel- 
ers  that  they  have  been  ruined.  The 
press  hires  a  class  of  men,  called  cartoon- 
244 


THE    DARK    SIDE    OF    REPUBLICANISM 

ists,  usually  ill-bred  fellows  of  no  stand- 
ing, yet  clever,  in  their  business,  whose 
duty  it  is  to  hold  up  public  men  to  ridi- 
cule in  every  possible  way  and  make 
them  infamous  before  the  people.  This 
is  called  the  freedom  of  the  press,  and  its 
attitude,  or  the  sensational  part  of  it,  in 
presenting  crime  in  an  alluring  manner, 
is  having  its  effect  upon  the  youth  of  the 
country.  Young  girls  and  boys  become 
familiar  with  every  feature  of  bestial 
crime  through  the  "yellow  journals,"  so 
called,  and  that  the  republic  will  reap 
sorely  from  this  sowing  I  venture  to 
prophesy. 

I  asked  one  of  the  great  insurance  men 
why  it  was  that  great  financial  institu- 
tions took  so  strong  an  interest  in  poli- 
tics. He  laughed,  and  said,  "If  I  am  not 
mistaken,  not  long  since  your  country 
repudiated  its  Government  bonds,  and 
they  are  not  negotiable  to  any  great  ex- 

17  245 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


tent  among  your  people."  Hearing  this 
I  assumed  the  American  attitude  and 
"sawed  wood."  "We  take  an  interest  in 
politics,"  he  continued,  "to  offset  the 
professional  blackmailer  and  thief.  Now 
in  the  case  of  your  repudiation  I  under- 
stand all  about  it.  The  Chinese  Govern- 
ment was  in  straits,  and  suddenly  some 
seemingly  patriotic  citizen  started  a  pe- 
tition, stating  to  the  Government  that  the 
subscribers  offered  their  Government  se- 
curities to  the  Government  as  a  gift.  By 
no  means  all  the  bondholders  signed, 
but  enough,  I  understand,  to  have  justi- 
fied your  Government  in  repudiating  the 
bonds — 'at  the  request  of  the  people' — 
thus  destroying  the  national  credit  at 
home  and  abroad.  Now  in  America 
that  would  be  called  'graft.'  The  act 
would  be  done  by  a  few  grafters  in  the 
hope  of  reward,  or  by  some  unscrupulous 
statesmen  to  save  the  Government  from 
246 


THE    DARK    SIDE    OF    REPUBLICANISM 

bankruptcy  during  their  term  of  office. 
I  conceive  this  to  be  what  was  done  in 
China.  If  we  do  not  keep  eternal  watch 
we  shall  be  bled  every  day.  It  is  done 
in  this  way:  a  grafter  becomes  an  assem- 
blyman, and  with  others  lays  a  plan  of 
graft.  It  is  to  get  up  a  bill,  so  offensive 
to  our  corporation  that  it  would  mean 
ruin  if  passed.  The  grafter  has  no  idea 
that  it  will  pass,  but  it  is  made  much  of, 
and  of  course  reaches  our  ears,  and  the 
question  is  how  to  stop  it.  We  are 
finally  told  that  we  had  better  see  Mr. 

,  in  our  own  city.    He  is  accordingly 

looked  up  and  found  to  be  a  cheap  and 
ignorant  politician,  who,  if  there  are  no 
witnesses,  tells  our  agent  plainly  that  it 
can  be  stopped  for  ten  thousand  dollars. 
Perhaps  we  beat  him  down  to  eight 
thousand,  but  we  pay  it.  Hundreds  of 
firms  have  been  blackmailed  in  this  way. 

Now  we  keep  an  agent  in  the  State  Cap- 

247 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


itol  to  attend  to  our  interests,  and  we  take 
an  interest  in  politics  to  head  off  the  elec- 
tion of  professional  grafters." 
\  One  of  the  most  serious  things  in  this 
phase  of  national  immorality  is  showing 
itself  in  what  are  termed  "lynchings"; 
that  is,  a  negro  commits  a  crime  against 
a  white  woman,  and  instead  of  permit- 
ting the  law  to  run  its  course,  the  people 
rise,  seized  with  a  savage  craze  for  re- 
venge, batter  in  the  jails,  take  the  crim- 
inal, and  burn  him  at  the  stake.  This 
burning  is  sometimes  attended  by  thou- 
sands, who  display  theynost  remarkable 
abandon  and  savagery!  Some  African 
chiefs  have  sacrificed  more  people  at  one 
time,  but  no  savage  has  ever  displayed 
greater  bestiality,  gloated  over  his  vic- 
tim with  more  real  satisfaction,  than  these 
free  Americans  in  numerous  instances 
when  shouting  and  yelling  about  the 
burning  body  of  some  unfortunate  whose 
248 


THE    DARK    SIDE    OF    REPUBLICANISM 

crime  has  aroused  their  ferocity  to  the 
point  of  madness. 

Not  one  but  many  clergymen  have  de- 
nounced this.  They  compare  it  to  the 
most  brutal  acts  of  savagery,  and  we  have 
the  picture  of  a  country  posing  as  civ- 
ilized, with  the  temerity  to  point  out  the 
sins  of  others,  giving  themselves  over  to 
orgies  that  would  disgrace  the  lowest  of 
races.  I  have  it  from  the  lips  of  a  clergy- 
man that  during  the  past  twelve  years 
over  twenty-five  hundred  men  have  been 
lynched  in  the  United  States.  In  a  sin- 
gle year  two  hundred  and  forty  men  were 
killed  by  mobs  in  this  way,  many  being 
burned  at  the  stake.  If  any  excuse  is 
offered,  it  is  said  that  most  of  these  were 
negroes,  and  the  crime  was  rape,  and  the 
victims  white  women ;  but  of  the  number 
mentioned  only  forty-six  were  charged 
with  this  crime  and  but  two-thirds  were 
black.  Many  confessed  as  the  torch  was 

249 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


applied,  many  died  protesting  their  in- 
nocence, and  in  no  case  was  the  offense 
legally  proved.  This  lynching  seems  to 
be  a  mania  with  the  people.  It  began 
with  the  attack  of  negroes  on  white 
women.  The  repetition  of  similar  cases 
so  enraged  the  whites  that  they  have  be- 
come mad  upon  the  subject.  The  feel- 
ing is  well  illustrated  by  the  remark  of 
a  Southerner  to  me.  "If  a  woman  of  my 
family  was  attacked  by  a  negro  I  must 
be  his  executioner.  I  could  not  wait  for 
the  law."  This  man  told  me  that  no 
lynching  would  ever  have  taken  place 
had  it  not  been  for  the  uncertainty  of 
the  law.  Men  who  were  known  to  be 
guilty  of  the  grossest  of  crimes  had  been 
virtually  protected  by  the  law,  and  their 
cases  dragged  along  at  great  expense  to 
the  State,  this  occurring  so  many  times 
that  the  patience  of  the  people  became 
exhausted.  This  man  forgot  that  the 
250 


THE   DARK    SIDE    OF    REPUBLICANISM 

law  was  instigated  for  the  purpose  of 
justice. 

The  negro  is  an  issue  in  America  and 
a  cause  of  much  crime,  a  vengeance  on 
the  people  who  held  them  as  slaves. 
The  negro  has  increased  so  rapidly  that 
in  forty  years  he  has  doubled  in  number, 
there  now  being  over  nine  millions  in  the 
country.  At  the  present  rate  there  will 
be  twenty- five  millions  in  1930 — a  black 
menace  to  the  white  American. 

The  negro  is  a  factor  in  the  national 
unrest.  They  outnumber  the  whites  in 
some  localities,  and  hence  vote  them- 
selves many  offices,  while  the  few  whites 
pay  eighty  or  eighty-five  per  cent  of  the 
taxes  and  the  negroes  supply  from  eighty 
to  ninety  per  cent  of  the  criminals. 
While  this  is  going  on  in  the  South  and 
the  whites  are  rising  and  preparing  to 
disfranchise  the  blacks  in  many  States, 
the  people  of  Boston  and  Cambridge  are 

251 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


discussing  the  propriety  of  the  whites 
and  blacks  marrying  to  settle  the  ques- 
tion of  social  equality.  Such  proposals 
I  have  read.  Reprinted  in  the  South, 
they  added  fuel  to  the  flame. 

Another  element  of  distress  in  Amer- 
ica is  the  attitude  of  labor,  the  policy  of 
the  Government  of  letting  in  the  lowest 
of  the  low  from  every  nation  except  the 
Chinese,  against  whom  the  only  charge 
has  been  that  they  are  too  industrious  and 
thus  a  menace  to  the  whites.  The  swarms 
of  people  from  the  low  and  criminal 
classes  of  Europe  have  enabled  the  an- 
archists to  obtain  such  a  foothold  that  in 
this  free  country  the  President  of  the 
United  States  is  almost  as  closely  guard- 
ed as  the  Emperor  of  Russia.  The  White 
House  is  surrounded  and  guarded  by 
detectives  of  various  kinds.  The  secret- 
service  department  is  equal  in  its  equip- 
ment to  that  of  many  European  nations, 
252 


THE   DARK    SIDE    OF    REPUBLICANISM 

and  millions  are  spent  in  watching  crim- 
inals and  putting  down  their  strikes  and 
riots.  The  doctrine  of  freedom  to  all  ap- 
peals so  well  to  the  ignorant  laborer  that 
he  has  decided  to  control  the  entire  sit- 
uation, and  to  this  end  labor  is  divided 
into  "unions,"  and  in  many  sections  bus- 
iness has  been  ruined. 

The  demands  of  these  ignorant  men 
are  so  preposterous  that  they  can  scarcely 
be  credited.  The  merchant  no  longer 
owns  his  business  or  directs  it.  The  la- 
borer tells  him  what  to  pay,  how  to  pay 
it,  when  and  how  long  the  hours  shall 
be — in  fact,  undertakes  to  usurp  entire 
control.  If  the  owner  protests,  the  labor- 
ers all  stop  work,  strike,  appoint  guards, 
who  attack,  kill,  or  intimidate  any  one 
who  attempts  to  take  their  place.  In  this 
way  it  is  said  that  one  billion  dollars 
have  been  lost  in  the  last  few  years.  Con- 
tracts have  been  broken,  men  ruined, 

253 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


localities  and  cities  placed  in  the  greatest 
jeopardy,  and  hundreds  of  lives  lost. 
Every  branch  of  trade  has  its  "union," 
and  in  so  many  cases  have  the  laborers 
been  successful  that  a  national  panic 
comes  almost  in  sight.  Never  was  there 
a  more  farcical  illustration  of  freedom. 
Irrational,  ignorant  Irishmen,  who  had 
not  the  mental  capacity  to  earn  more 
than  a  dollar  a  day,  dictated  to  merchant 
princes  and  millionaire  contractors.  In 
New  York  it  was  proved  that  the  leaders 
of  the  strikers  sold  out  to  employers,  and 
accepted  bribes  to  call  off  strikes. 

The  question  before  the  American  peo- 
ple is,  Has  an  American  citizen  the  right 
to  conduct  his  own  business  to  suit  him- 
self and  employ  whom  he  wishes?  Has 
the  laborer  the  right  to  work  for  whom 
and  what  rate  he  pleases?  The  imported 
socialists,  anarchists,  and  their  converts 
among  Americans  say  no,  and  it  will  re- 
254 


THE   DARK   SIDE   OF   REPUBLICANISM 

quire  but  little  to  precipitate  a  bloody 
war,  when  labor,  led  by  red-handed  mur- 
derers, will  enact  in  New  York  and  all 
over  the  United  States  the  horrors  of  the 
French  Commune. 

The  republic  for  a  great  and  enlight- 
ened country  has  too  many  criminals.  I 
am  told  by  a  prohibition  clergyman  that 
the  curse  of  drink  and  license  has  its 
fangs  in  the  heart  of  the  land.  He  tells 
me  that  the  Americans  pay  yearly  $1,172- 
000,000  for  their  alcoholic  drink;  for 
bread,  $600,000,000;  for  tobacco,  $625,- 
000,000;  for  education,  $197,000,000;  for 
ministers'  salaries,  $14,000,000.  It  has 
been  found  that  the  downfall  of  eighty- 
one  per  cent  of  criminals  is  traceable  to 
drink.  He  said:  "Our  republic  is  a 
failure  morally,  as  we  have  2,550,000 
drunkards  and  people  addicted  to  drink. 
We  have  600,000  prostitutes,  and  many 
more  doubtless  that  are  not  known,  and 

255 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  their  downfall 
can  be  traced  to  drink." 

I  listen  to  this  side  of  the  story,  and 
then  I  see  wonderful  philanthropy,  in- 
stitutions for  the  prevention  of  crime, 
good  men  at  work  according  to  their 
light,  millions  employed  to  educate  the 
young,  thousands  of  churches  and  so- 
cieties to  aid  man  in  making  man  better. 
When  I  listen  to  these  men,  and  see  tens 
of  thousands  of  Christian  men  and  wom- 
en living  pure  lives,  building  up  vast 
cities,  great  monuments  for  the  future,  I 
feel  that  I  can  not  judge  the  Americans. 
They  perhaps  expect  too  much  from  their 
freedom  and  their  republican  ideas.  I 
shall  never  be  a  republican.  I  believe 
that  we  all  have  all  the  freedom  we  de- 
serve. It  is  well  to  remember  that  man 
is  an  animal.  After  all  his  polish  and 
refinement,  he  has  animal  tastes  and  de- 
sires, and  if  he  makes  laws  that  are  in 
256 


THE    DARK    SIDE    OF   REPUBLICANISM 

direct  opposition  to  the  indulgence  which 
his  animal  nature  suggests,  he  certainly 
must  have  some  method  of  enforcing  the 
laws.  Like  all  animals,  some  men  are 
easily  influenced  and  others  not,  and  the 
human  animal  has  not  made  progress  so 
far  but  that  he  needs  watching  in  order 
to  make  him  conform  to  what  he  has  de- 
cided or  elected  to  call  right. 

You  will  expect  me  to  compare  the 
American  to  the  Chinaman,  but  it  is  im- 
possible. Some  things  which  we  look 
upon  as  right,  the, American  considers 
grievous  sins.  The  point  of  view  is  en- 
tirely at  variance,  but  I  have  boundless 
faith  in  the  brilliant  and  good  men  and 
women  I  have  met  in  America.  I  say 
this  despite  my  other  impressions,  which 
also  hold. 

The  great  political  scheme  of  the  peo- 
ple is  poorly  devised  and  crude.  It  is  so 
arranged  that  in  some  States  governors 

257 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


are  elected  every  year  or  two  and  other 
officers  every  year,  representatives  of  the 
people  in  Congress  every  two  years,  sen- 
ators every  six,  Presidents  every  four 
years.  Thus  the  country  is  constantly  in 
a  whirl,  and  as  soon  as  the  rancor  of  one 
national  election  is  over  begins  the 
scheming  for  another.  The  people  have 
really  little  to  do  with  the  selection  of  a 
President.  A  small  band  of  rich  and  in- 
fluential schemers  generally  have  the 
entire  plan  or  "slate"  laid  out.  A  plan, 
natural  in  appearance,  is  arranged  for 
the  public,  and  at  the  right  time  the 
slated  program  is  sprung.  Senators 
should  be  elected  by  the  people,  congress- 
men should  be  elected  for  a  longer  pe- 
riod, and  Presidents  should  have  twice 
the  terms  they  do.  But  it  is  easy  to  sug- 
gest, and  I  confess  that  my  suggestions 
are  those  of  many  American  people  them- 
selves which  I  hear  reformers  cry  abroad. 
258 


THE    DARK    SIDE    OF   REPUBLICANISM 

(^  The  vital  trouble  with  America  to-day 
is  that  she  can  not  assimilate  the  600,000 
debased,  ignorant,  poverty-stricken  for- 
eigners who  are  coming  in  every  year. 
They  keep  out  the  one  peaceful  nation. 
They  exclude  the  Chinese  and  take  to 
the  national  heart  the  Jew,  the  Socialist, 
the  Italian,  the  Roumanian  and  others 
who  constitute  a  nation  of  unrest.)  What 
America  needs  is  the  "rest  cure"  that  you 
hear  so  much  about  here.  She  should 
close  her  seaports  to  these  aliens  for  ten 
years,  allow  the  people  here  to  assimi- 
late; but  they  can  not  do  it.  The  for- 
eign transportation  lines  under  foreign 
flags  are  in  the  business  to  load  up  Amer- 
ica with  the  dregs  of  Europe.  I  know  of 
one  family  of  Jews,  four  brothers,  who 
wished  to  come  to  America,  but  found 
that  they  would  have  to  show  that  they 
were  not  paupers.  They  mustered  about 
one  thousand  dollars.  One  came  over, 

259 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


and  sent  back  the  money  by  draft.  The 
second  brought  it  back  as  his  fortune, 
then  immediately  sent  it  back  for  another 
brother  to  bring  over,  and  so  on  until 
they  all  arrived,  each  proving  that  he  was 
not  a  pauper.  Yet  these  same  brothers, 
each  with  several  children,  became  an  ex- 
pense to  the  Government  before  they 
were  earners.  The  children  were  sent  to 
industrial  homes,  and  later  entered  the 
sweat-shops.  In  America  there  is  not  a 
Chinaman  to-day  in  a  workhouse,  or  a 
pauper1  at  the  expense  of  the  Govern- 
ment; yet  the  Chinese  are  not  wanted 
here. 

1  This  is  doubtful. — EDITOR. 


26O 


CHAPTER   XVI 

SPORTS  AND  PASTIMES 

I  HAD  not  been  in  Washington  a  month 
before  I  received  invitations  to  a  "coun- 
try club  golf"  tournament,  to  a  "rowing 
club,"  to  a  "pink  tea,"  to  a  "polo  game," 
to  a  private  "boxing"  bout  between  two 
light-weight  professionals,  given  in  Sen- 
ator   's  stable,  to  a  private  "cock- 
fight" by  the  brother  of  's  wife,  to 

a  gun  club  "shoot,"  not  to  speak  of  in- 
vitations to  several  "poker  games."  From 
this  you  may  infer  that  Americans  are 
fond  of  sport.  The  official  sport — that  is, 
the  game  I  heard  of  most  among  Gov- 
ernment officials,  senators,  and  others — 
was  "poker,"  and  the  sums  played  for  at 
times  I  am  assured  are  beyond  belief. 
There  are  rules  and  etiquette  for  poker, 
is  261 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


and  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of 
American  diplomatists  of  a  past  genera- 
tion, General  Schenck,  emulated  the 
Marquis  of  Queensberry  in  boxing  by 
writing  a  book  on  the  national  game,  that 
has  all  the  charm  claimed  for  it.  It  is 
seductive,  and  doubtless  has  had  its  in- 
fluence on  the  people  who  employ  the 
"bluff"  in  diplomacy,  war,  business,  or 
poker,  with  equal  tact  and  cleverness. 

Middle-class  Americans  are  fond  of 
sport  in  every  way,  but  the  aristocrats 
lack  sporting  spontaneity;  they  like  it,  or 
pretend  to  like  it,  because  it  is  the  fash- 
ion, and  they  take  up  one  sport  after 
another  as  it  becomes  the  fad.  That  this 
is  true  can  be  shown  by  comparing  the 
Englishman  and  the  American  of  the 
fashionable  class.  The  Englishman  is 
fond  of  sport  because  it  is  in  his  blood; 
he  does  not  like  golf  to-day  and  swim- 
ming to-morrow,  but  he  likes  them  all, 
262 


SPORTS   AND    PASTIMES 


and  always  has  done  so.  He  would  never 
give  up  cricket,  golf,  or  any  of  his  games 
because  they  go  out  of  fashion;  he  does 
not  allow  them  to  go  out  of  fashion;  but 
with  the  American  it  is  different. 

Hence  I  assume  that  the  average  Amer- 
ican of  the  better  class  is  not  imbued  with 
the  sporting  spirit.  He  wears  it  like  an 
ill-fitting  coat.  I  find  a  singular  feature 
among  the  Americans  in  connection  with 
their  sports.  Thus  if  something  is  known 
and  recognized  as  sport,  people  take  to 
it  with  avidity,  but  if  the  same  thing  is 
called  labor  or  exercise,  it  is  considered 
hard  work,  shirked  and  avoided.  This 
is  very  cleverly  illustrated  by  Mark 
Twain  in  one  of  his  books,  where  a  boy 
makes  his  companions  believe  that  white- 
washing a  fence  is  sport,  and  so  relieves 
himself  from  an  arduous  duty  by  pre- 
tending to  share  the  great  privilege  with 
them. 

263 


AS   A   CHINAMAN   ,SAW    US 


No  one  would  think  of  walking  stead- 
ily for  six  days,  yet  once  this  became 
sport;  dozens  of  men  undertook  it,  and 
long  walks  became  a  fad.  If  a  man 
committed  a  crime  and  should  be  sen- 
tenced to  play  the  modern  American 
'game  of  football  every  day  for  thirty  days 
as  a  punishment,  there  are  some  who 
might  prefer  a  death  sentence  and  so 
avoid  a  lingering  end;  but  under  the 
title  of  "sport"  all  young  men  play  it,  and 
a  number  are  maimed  and  killed  yearly. 

Sport  is  in  the  blood  of  the  common 
people.  Children  begin  with  tops,  mar- 
bles, and  kites,  yet  never  appreciate  our 
skill  with  either.  I  amazed  a  boy  on  the 
outskirts  of  Washington  one  day  by  ask- 
ing him  why  he  did  not  irritate  his  kite 
and  make  it  go  through  various  evolu- 
tions. He  had  never  heard  of  doing  that, 
and  when  I  took  the  string  and  began  to 
jerk  it,  and  finally  made  the  kite  plunge 
264 


SPORTS    AND    PASTIMES 


downward  or  swing  in  circles,  and  always 
restored  it  by  suddenly  slacking  off  the 
cord,  he  was  astonished  and  delighted. 
The  national  game  is  baseball,  a  very 
clever  game.  It  is  nothing  to  see  thou- 
sands at  a  game,  each  person  having  paid 
twenty-five  or  fifty  cents  for  the  priv- 
ilege. In  summer  this  game,  played  by 
experts,  becomes  a  most  profitable  bus- 
iness. Rarely  is  any  one  hurt  but  the 
judge  or  umpire,  who  is  at  times  hissed 
by  the  audience  and  mobbed,  and  at 
others  beaten  by  either  side  for  unfair 
decisions;  but  this  is  rare. 

Football  is  dangerous,  but  is  even  more 
popular  than  the  other.  You  might  im- 
agine by  the  name  that  the  ball  is  kicked. 
On  the  contrary  the  real  action  of  the 
game  consists  in  running  down,  tripping 
up,  smashing  into,  and  falling  on  whom- 
ever has  the  ball.  As  a  consequence,  men 
wear  a  soft  armor.  There  are  fashions  in 

265 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


sports  which  demonstrate  the  ephemeral 
quality  of  the  American  love  for  sport. 
A  while  ago  "wheeling"  was  popular, 
and  everybody  wheeled.  Books  were 
printed  on  the  etiquette  of  the  sport; 
roads  were  built  for  it  and  improved;  but 
suddenly  the  working  class  took  it  up  and 
fashion  dropped  it.  Then  came  golf,  im- 
ported from  Scotland.  With  this  fad 
millions  of  dollars  were  expended  in 
country  clubs  and  greens  all  over  the 
United  States,  as  acres  of  land  were  nec- 
essary. People  seized  upon  this  with  a 
fierceness  that  warmed  the  hearts  of 
dealers  in  balls  and  clubs.  The  men 
who  edited  wheel  magazines  now 
changed  them  to  "golf  monthlies."  This 
sport  began  to  wane  as  the  novelty  wore 
off,  until  golf  is  now  played  by  com- 
paratively few  experts  and  lovers. 

Society  introduced  the  automobile,  and 
we  have  the  same  thing — more  maga- 
266 


SPORTS   AND    PASTIMES 


zines,  the  spending  of  millions,  the  build- 
ing of  the  garage,  and  the  appearance 
of  the  chaufeur  or  driver.  Then  came 
the  etiquette  of  the  auto — a  German  navy 
cap,  rubber  coat,  and  Chinese  goggles. 
This  peculiar  uniform  is  of  course  only 
to  be  worn  when  racing,  but  you  see  the 
American  going  out  for  a  slow  ride 
solemnly  attired  in  rubber  coat  and  gog- 
gles. The  moment  the  auto  comes 
within  reach  of  the  poor  man  it  will  be 
given  up;  but  it  is  now  the  fad  and  a 
most  expensive  one,  the  best  machines 
costing  ten  thousand  dollars  or  more,  and 
I  have  seen  races  where  the  speed  ex- 
ceeded a  mile  a  minute. 

All  sports  have  their  ethics  and  rules 
and  their  correct  costuming.  Baseball 
men  are  in  uniform,  generally  white, 
with  various-colored  stockings.  The 
golfer  wears  a  red  coat  and  has  a  servant 
or  valet,  who  carries  his  bag  of  clubs, 

267 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


designed  for  every  possible  expediency. 
To  hear  a  group  of  golfers  discuss  the 
merits  of  these  tools  is  one  of  the  ex- 
traordinary experiences  one  has  in  Amer- 
ica. I  have  been  made  fairly  "giddy," 
as  the  Englishmen  say,  by  this  anemic 
conversation  at  country  clubs.  The 
"high-ball"  was  the  saving  clause — a  re- 
markable invention  this.  Have  I  ex- 
plained it?  You  take  a  very  tall  glass, 
made  for  the  purpose,  and  into  it  pour 
the  contents  of  a  small  cut-glass  bottle  or 
decanter  of  whisky,  which  must  be 
Scotch,  tasting  of  smoke.  On  this  you 
pour  seltzer  or  soda-water,  filling  up  the 
glass,  and  if  you  take  enough  you  are 
"high"  and  feel  like  a  rolling  ball.  It  is 
the  thing  to  take  a  "high-ball"  after 
every  nine  holes  in  golf.  Then  after  the 
game  you  bathe,  and  sit  and  drink  as 
many  as  your  skin  will  hold.  I  got  this 
from  a  professional  golf-teacher  in 
268 


SPORTS    AND    PASTIMES 


charge  of  the links,  and  hence  it  is 

official. 

The  avidity  with  which  the  Americans 
seize  upon  a  sport  and  the  suddenness 
with  which  they  drop  it,  illustrating 
what  I  have  said  about  the  lack  of  a  na- 
tional sporting  taste,  is  well  shown  by 
the  coming  of  a  game  called  "ping 
pong,"  a  parlor  tennis,  with  our  battle- 
dores for  rackets.  What  great  mind 
invented  this  game,  or  where  it  came 
from,  no  one  seems  to  know,  but  as  a  wag 
remarked,  "When  in  doubt  lay  it  to 
China."  Some  suppose  it  is  Chinese,  the 
name  suggesting  it.  So  extraordinary 
was  the  early  demand  for  it  that  it  ap- 
peared as  though  everybody  in  America 
was  determined  to  own  and  play  ping 
pong.  The  dealers  could  not  produce  it 
fast  enough.  Factories  were  established 
all  over  the  country,  and  the  tools  were 
ground  out  by  the  ten  thousands.  Books 

269 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


were  written  on  the  ethics  of  the  game; 
experts  came  to  the  front;  ping  pong 
weeklies  and  monthlies  were  founded,  to 
dumfound  the  masses,  and  the  very  air 
vibrated  with  the  "ping"  and  the  "pong." 
The  old  and  young,  rich  and  poor, 
feeble  and  herculean,  all  played  it.  Doc- 
tors advised  it,  children  cried  for  it,  and 
a  fashionable  journal  devised  the  correct 
ping-pong  costume  for  players.  Great 
matches  were  played  between  the  experts 
of  various  sections,  and  this  sport,  a  game 
really  for  small  children,  after  the  fash- 
ion of  battledore  and  shuttlecock,  ran  its 
course  among  young  and  old.  Pictures 
of  adult  ping-pong  champions  were  bla- 
zoned in  the  public  print;  even  church- 
men took  it  up.  Public  gardens  had 
special  ping-pong  tables  to  relieve  the 
stress.  At  last  the  people  seized  upon 
ping  pong,  and  it  became  common.  Then 
it  was  dropped  like  a  dead  fish.  If  some 
270 


SPORTS   AND    PASTIMES 


cyclonic  disturbance  had  swept  all  the 
ping-pong  balls  into  space,  the  disap- 
pearance could  not  have  been  more  com- 
plete. Ping  pong  was  put  out  of  fashion. 
All  this  to  the  alien  suggests  something, 
a  want  of  balance,  a  "youngness"  perhaps. 
At  the  present  time  the  old  game  of 
croquet  is  being  revived  under  another 
name,  and  tennis  is  the  vogue  among 
many.  Among  the  fashionable  and 
wealthy  men  polo  is  the  vogue,  but 
among  a  few  everything  goes  by  fads  for 
a  few  years.  Every  one  will  rush  to  see 
or  play  some  game;  but  this  interest  soon 
dies  out,  and  something  new  starts  up. 
Such  games  as  baseball  and  football, 
tennis  and  polo  are,  in  a  sense,  in  a  class 
by  themselves,  but  among  the  pastimes 
of  the  people  a  wide  vogue  belongs  to 
fishing,  and  shooting  wild  fowl  and  large 
game.  The  former  is  universal,  and  the 

Americans  are  the  most  skilled  anglers 

271 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


with  artificial  lures  in  the  world,  due  to 
the  abundance  of  game-fish,  trout,  and 
others,  and  the  perfect  Government  care 
exercised  to  perfect  the  supply. 

As  an  illustration,  each  State  consid- 
ers hunting  and  fishing  a  valuable  asset 
to  attract  those  who  will  come  and  spend 
money.  I  was  told  by  a  Government 
official  that  the  State  of  Maine  reck- 
oned its  game  at  five  million  dollars  per 
annum,  which  means  that  the  sport  is  so 
good  that  sportsmen  spend  that  amount 
there  every  year;  but  I  fancy  the  amount 
is  overestimated.  The  Government  has 
perfect  fish  hatcheries,  constantly  supply- 
ing young  fish  to  streams,  while  the  bus- 
iness in  anglers'  supplies  is  immense. 
There  are  thousands  of  duck-shooting 
clubs  in  the  United  States.  Men,  or  a 
body  of  men,  rent  or  buy  marshes,  and 
keep  the  poor  man  out.  Rich  men  ac- 
quire hundreds  of  acres,  and  make  pre- 
272 


SPORTS   AND    PASTIMES 


serves.  Possibly  the  sport  of  hunting 
wild  fowl  is  the  most  characteristic  of 
American  sports.  This  also  has  its  eti- 
quette, its  costumes,  its  club-houses,  and 
its  poker  and  high-balls.  I  know  of  one 
such  club  in  which  almost  all  the  mem- 
bers are  millionaires.  A  humorous  paper 
stated  that  they  used  "gold  shot." 

As  a  nation  the  Americans  are  fond  of 
athletics,  which  are  taught  in  the  schools. 
There  are  splendid  gymnasiums,  and 
boys  and  girls  are  trained  in  athletic  ex- 
ercises. Athletics  are  all  in  vogue.  It 
is  fashionable  to  be  a  good  "fencer."  All 
the  young  dance.  I  believe  the  Amer- 
icans stand  high  as  a  nation  in  all-around 
athletics;  at  least  they  are  far  ahead  of 
China  in  this  respect. 

I  have  reserved  for  mention  last  the 
most  -popular  fashion  of  the  people  in 
sport,  which  is  prize-fighting.  Here 
again  you  see  a  strange  contradiction. 

273 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


The  people  are  preeminently  religious, 
and  prize-fighting  and  football  are  the 
sports  of  brutes;  yet  the  two  are  most 
popular.  No  public  event  attracts  more 
attention  in  America  than  a  gladiatorial 
fight  to  the  finish  between  the  champion 
and  some  aspirant.  For  months  the  pa- 
pers are  filled  with  it,  and  on  the  day  of 
the  event  the  streets  are  thronged  with 
people  crowding  about  the  billboards  to 
receive  the  news.  No  national  event, 
save  the  killing  of  a  President,  attracted 
more  universal  attention  than  the  beat- 
ing of  Sullivan  by  Corbett  and  the 
beating  of  Corbett  by  Fitzsimmons,  and 
"Fitz"  in  turn  by  Jeffries.  I  might  add 
that  I  joined  with  the  Americans  in  this, 
as  the  modern  prize-fighter  is  a  fine  ani- 
mal. If  all  boys  were  taught  to  believe 
that  their  fists  are  their  natural  weapons, 
there  would  be  fewer  murders  and  sud- 
den deaths  in  America.  I  have  seen 
274 


SPORTS    AND    PASTIMES 


several  of  these  prize-fights  and  many 
private  bouts,  all  with  gloves.  They  are 
governed  by  rules.  Such  a  combat  is  by 
no  means  as  dangerous  as  football,  where 
the  obvious  intention  seems  to  be  to  break 
ribs  and  crush  the  opponent. 

Rowing  is  much  indulged  in,  and 
yachting  is  a  great  national  maritime 
sport,  in  which  the  Americans  lead  and 
challenge  the  world.  In  no  sport  is  the 
wealth  of  the  nation  so  well  shown. 
Every  seaside  town  has  its  yacht  or  boat 
club,  and  in  this  the  interest  is  perpetual. 
Even  in  winter  the  yacht  is  rigged  into 
an  "ice-boat."  I  have  often  wondered 
that  fashionable  people  do  not  take  up 
the  romantic  sport  of  falconry,  as  they 
have  the  birds  and  every  facility.  I  sug- 
gested this  to  a  lady,  who  replied,  "Ah, 
that  is  too  barbaric  for  us."  "More  bar- 
baric than  cock-fighting?"  I  asked,  know- 
ing that  her  brother  owned  the  finest 

275 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


game-cocks  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
Among  the  Americans  there  is  a  dis- 
tinct love  for  fair  play,  and  such  sports 
as  "bull-baiting,"  "bull-fights,"  "dog- 
fights," and  "cock-fights"  have  never  at- 
tained any  degree  of  popularity.  There 
are  spasmodic  instances  of  such  indul- 
gences, but  in  no  sense  can  they  be  in- 
cluded, as  in  England  and  Spain,  among 
the  national  sports,  which  leads  me  to  the 
conclusion  that,  aside  from  the  many  pe- 
culiarities, as  taking  up  and  dropping 
sports,  America,  all  in  all,  is  the  greatest 
sporting  nation  of  the  world.  It  leads  in 
fist-fighting,  rifle-shooting,  in  skilful  an- 
gling, in  yachting,  in  rowing,  in  run- 
ning, in  six-day  walking,  in  auto-racing, 
in  trotting  and  running  horses,  and  in 
trap-shooting,  and  if  its  champions  in  all 
fields  could  be  lined  up  it  would  make  a 
surprising  showing.  I  am  free  to  con- 
fess and  quite  agree  with  a  vivacious 
276 


SPORTS    AND    PASTIMES 


young  woman  who  at  the  country  club 
told  me  that  it  was  very  nice  of  me  to 
uphold  my  country,  but  that  we  were 
"not  in  it"  with  American  sports. 

The  Presidents  are  often  sportsmen. 
President  Cleveland  and  President  Har- 
rison both  have  been  famous,  the  former 
as  a  fisherman,  the  latter  as  well  as  the 
former  as  a  duck-shooter.  President  Mc- 
Kinley  has  no  taste  for  sport,  but  the 
Vice-President  is  a  promoter  of  sport  of 
each  and  every  kind.  He  is  at  home  in 
polo  or  hurdle  racing,  with  the  rifle  or  re- 
volver. This  calls  to  mind  the  national 
weapon — the  revolver.  Nine-tenths  of 
all  the  shooting  is  done  with  this  weapon, 
that  is  carried  in  a  special  pocket  on  the 
hips,  and  I  venture  to  say  that  a  pair  of 
"trousers"  was  never  made  without  the 
pistol  pocket.  Even  the  clergymen  have 
one.  I  asked  an  Episcopal  clergyman 
why  he  had  a  pistol  pocket.  He  replied 
19  277 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


that  he  carried  his  prayer-book  there. 
The  Southern  people  use  a  long  curved 
knife,  called  a  bowie,  after  its  inventor. 
Many  people  have  been  cut  by  this 
weapon.  The  negro,  for  some  strange 
reason,  carries  a  razor,  and  in  a  fight 
"whips  out"  this  awful  weapon  and 
slashes  his  enemy.  I  have  asked  many 
negroes  to  explain  this  habit  or  selection. 
One  replied  that  it  was  "none  of  my 

d business."     Nearly  all  the  others 

said  they  did  not  know  why  they  car- 
ried it. 


278 


CHAPTER   XVII 

THE  CHINAMAN  IN  AMERICA 

THE  average  Irishman  whom  one 
meets  in  America,  and  he  is  legion,  is  a 
very  different  person  from  the  polished 
gentleman  I  have  met  in  Belfast,  Dub- 
lin, and  other  cities  in  Ireland;  but  I 
never  heard  that  the  American  Irishman, 
the  product  of  an  ignorant  peasantry 
crowded  out  of  Ireland,  had ybeen  ac- 
cepted as  a  type  of  the  race\  Peculiar 
discrimination  is  made  in  America 
against  the  Chinese.  Our  lower  classes, 
"coolies"  from  the  Cantonese  districts, 
have  flocked  to  America.  Americans 
"lump"  all  Chinese  under  this  head,  and 
can  not  conceive  that  in  China  there  are 
cultivated  men,  just  as  there  are  culti- 

279 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


vated  men  in  Ireland,  the  antipodes  orf 
the  grotesque  Irish  types  seen  in  America). 
^1  believe  there  are  seventy-five  or 
eighty  thousand  Chinamen  in  America. 
They  do  not  assimilate  with  the  Amer- 
icans. Many  are  common  lab&rers,  laun- 
drymen,  and  small  merchants/  In  New 
York,  Chicago,  San  Francisco,  and  other 
cities  there  are  large  settlements  of  them. 
In  San  Francisco  many  have  acquired 
wealth.  (jThe  Chinese  quarter  is  to  all  in- 
tents and  purposes  a  Chinese  city.  None 
of  these  people,  or  very  few,  are  Amer- 
icanized in  the  sense  of  taking  an  active 
part  in  the  government;  Americans  do 
not  permit  it.  I  was  told  that  the  Chi- 
nese were  among  the  best  citizens,  the 
percentage  of  criminals  being  very  small. 
They  are  honest,  frugal,  and  industrious 
—too  industrious,  in  fact,  and  for  this 
very,reason  the  ban  has  been  placed  upon 
thernjf  Red-handed  members  of  the  Ital- 
280 


THE    CHINAMAN    IN    AMERICA 


ian  Mafia — a  society  of  murderers — the 
most  ignorant  class  in  Ireland,  Wales, 
and  England,  the  scum  of  Russia,  and 
the  human  dregs  of  Europe  generally 
are  welcome,  but  the  clean,  hard-work- 
ing Chinaman  is  excluded/ 
f  Millions  are  spent  yearly  in  keeping 
him  out  after  he  had  been  invited  to 
come.  He  built  many  American  rail- 
roads; he  opened  the  door  between  the 
Atlantic  and  the  Pacific;  he  worked  in 
the  mines;  he  did  work  that  no  one  else 
would  or  could  do,  and  when  it  was  com- 
pleted the  American  laborer,  the  product 
of  this  scum  of  all  nations,  demanded 
that  tht  Chinaman  be  "thrown  out"  and 
kept/ut.  America  listened  to  the  bla- 
tant demagogues,  the  "sand-lot  orators," 
and  excluded  the  Chinese\  To-day  it  is 
almost  impossible  for  a  Chinese  gentle- 
man to  send  his  son  to  America  to  travel 
or  study.)  He  will  not  be  distinguished 
'  281 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


from  laundryman  "John,"  and  is  thrown 
back  in  the  teeth  of  his  countrymen; 
^meanwhile  China  continues  to  be  raided 
by  American  missionaries)  The  insult  is 
rarely  resented.  In  the  treaty  ratified  by 
the  United  States  Senate  in  1868  we  read: 
"The  United  States  of  America  and 
the  Empire  of  China  cordially  recognize 
the  inherent  right  of  man  to  change  his 
home  and  allegiance,  and  also  the  mutual 
advantage  of  the  free  immigration  and 
emigration  of  their  citizens  and  subjects 
respectively  from  the  one  country  to  the 
other  for  purposes  of  curiosity,  of  trade 
or  as  permanent  residents." 

Again  we  read,  in  the  treaty  ratified 
under  the  Hayes  administration,  that  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  "if  its 
labor  interests  are  threatened  by  the  in- 
coming Chinese,  may  regulate  or  limit 
such  coming,  but  may  not  absolutely  pro- 
hibit it."  The  United  States  Govern- 
282 


THE    CHINAMAN    IN    AMERICA 


ment  has  disregarded  its  solemn  treaty 
obligations.  Not  only  this,  our  people, 
previous  to  the  Exclusion  Act,  were 
killed,  stoned,  and  attacked  time  and 
again  by  "hoodlums."  The  life  of  a 
Chinaman  was  not  safe.  The  labor  class 
in  America,  the  lowest  and  almost  always 
a  foreign  class,  wished  to  get  rid  of  the 
Chinaman  so  that  they  could  raise  the 
price  of  labor  and  secure  all  the  work. 
China  had  reason  to  go  to  war  with 
America  for  her  treatment  of  her  people 
and  for  failure  to  observe  a  treaty.  The 
Scott  Exclusion  Act  was  a  gratuitous  in- 
sult.t  I  hope  our  people  will  continue  to 
retaliate  by  refusing  to  buy  anything 
from  the  Americans  or  sell  anything  to 
them.  Let  us  deal  with  our  friends. 

Then  came  the  Geary  Bill,  which  was 
an  outrage,  our  people  being  thrown  into 
jail  for  a  year  and  then  sent  back.  I 
might  quote  some  of  the  charges  made 

283 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


against  our  people.  Mr.  Geary,  I  un- 
derstand, is  an  Irish  ex-congressman 
from  the  State  of  California,  who,  while 
in  Congress,  was  the  mouthpiece  of  the 
worst  anti-Chinese  faction  ever  organized 
in  America.  He  was  ultimately  de- 
feated, much  to  the  delight  of  New  Eng- 
land and  many  other  people  in  the  East. 
Mr.  Geary's  chief  complaint  against  the 
Chinese  was  that  they  work  too  cheaply, 
are  too  industrious,  and  do  not  eat  as 
much  as  an  American.  He  obtained  his 
information  from  Consul  Bedloe,  of 
Amoy.  He  says  the  average  earnings  of 
the  Chinese  adult  employed  as  mechanic 
or  laborer  (in  China)  is  five  dollars  per 
month,  and  states  that  this  is  ten  per  cent 
above  the  average  wages  prevailing 
throughout  China. 

The  wages  paid,  according  to  his  re- 
port, per  month,  to  blacksmiths  are  $7.25 ; 

carpenters,    $8.50;    cabinet-makers,    $9; 
284 


THE   CHINAMAN    IN    AMERICA 


glass-blowers,  $9;  plasterers,  $6.25; 
plumbers,  $6.25;  machinists,  $6;  while 
other  classes  of  skilled  labor  are  paid 
from  $7.25  to  $9  per  month,  and  common 
laborers  receive  $4  per  month.  In  Eu- 
ropean houses  the  average  wages  paid  to 
servants  are  from  $5  to  $6  a  month,  with- 
out board.  Clothing  costs  per  year  from 
75  cents  to  $1.50.  Out  of  these  incomes 
large  families  are  maintained.  He  says : 
"The  daily  fare  of  an  Amoy  working  man 
and  its  cost  are  about  as  follows:  il/2 
pounds  of  rice,  3  cents;  i  ounce  of  meat, 
i  ounce  of  fish,  2  ounces  of  shell-fish,  i 
cent;  i  pound  of  cabbage  or  other  veg- 
etable, i  cent;  fuel,  salt,  and  oil,  i  cent; 
total,  6  cents. 

"Here,"  said  Mr.  Geary,  "is  a  condi- 
tion deserving  of  attention  by  all  friends 
of  this  country,  and  by  all  who  believe  in 
the  protection  of  the  working  classes.  Is 
it  fair  to  subject  our  laborer  to  a  com- 

285 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


petitor  who  can  measure  his  wants  by  an 
expenditure  of  six  cents  a  day,  and  who 
can  live  on  an  income  not  exceeding  five 
dollars  a  month?  What  will  become  of 
the  boasted  civilization  of  our  country 
if  our  toilers  are  compelled  to  compete 
with  this  class  of  labor,  with  more  com- 
petitors available  than  twice  the  entire 
population  of  France,  Germany,  Aus- 
tria, Belgium,  Denmark,  Switzerland, 
Italy,  Netherlands,  Portugal,  and  Spain? 
"The  Chinese  laborer  brings  neither 
wife  nor  children,  and  his  wants  are  lim- 
ited to  the  immediate  necessities  of  the 
individual,  while  the  American  is  com- 
pelled to  earn  income  sufficient  to  main- 
tain the  wife  and  babies.  There  can  be 
but  one  end  to  this.  If  this  immigration 
is  permitted  to  continue,  American  labor 
must  surely  be  reduced  to  the  level  of  the 
Chinese  competitor  —  the  American's 
wants  measured  by  his  wants,  the  Amer- 
286 


THE    CHINAMAN    IN    AMERICA 


lean's  comforts  be  made  no  greater  than 
the  comforts  of  the  Chinaman,  and  the 
American  laborer,  not  having  been  edu- 
cated to  maintain  himself  according  to 
this  standard,  must  either  meet  his  Chi- 
nese competitor  on  his  own  level,  or  else 
take  up  his  pack  and  leave  his  native 
land.  The  entire  trade  of  China,  if  we 
had  it  all,  is  not  worth  such  a  sacrifice." 

Mr.  Geary  forgets  that  when  China- 
men go  to  America  they  adapt  them- 
selves to  prevailing  conditions.  Chinese 
cooks  in  the  States  to-day  receive  from 
$30  to  $50  per  month  and  board;  Chi- 
nese laborers  from  $20  to  $30,  and  some 
of  them  $2  per  day.  In  China,  where 
there  is  an  enormous  population,  prices 
are  lower,  people  are  not  wasteful,  and 
the  necessities  of  life  do  not  cost  so 
much.  The  Chinaman  goes  to  Amer- 
ica to  obtain  the  benefit  of  high  wages, 
not  to  reduce  wages.  I  have  never  seen 

287 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


such  poverty  and  wretchedness  in  China 
as  I  have  seen  in  London,  or  such  vice 
and  poverty  as  can  be  seen  in  any  large 
American  city.  Mr.  Geary  scorns  the 
treaties  between  his  country  and  China, 
and  laughs  at  our  commercial  relations. 
He  says,  "There  is  nothing  in  the  Chi- 
nese trade,  or  rather  the  loss  of  it,  to 
alarm  any  American.  We  would  be  bet- 
ter off  without  any  part  or  portion  of  it." 
In  answer  to  this  I  would  suggest  that 
China  take  him  at  his  word,  and  I  assure 
you  that  if  every  Chinaman  could  be  re- 
called, if  in  six  months  or  less  we  could 
take  the  eighty  or  one  hundred  thousand 
Chinamen  out  of  the  country,  the  region 
where  they  now  live  would  be  demoral- 
ized. The  Chinese  control  the  vegetable- 
garden  business  on  the  Pacific  Coast; 
they  virtually  control  the  laundry  bus- 
iness; and  that  the  Americans  want  them, 
and  want  cheaper  labor  than  they  are  get- 
288 


THE    CHINAMAN    IN    AMERICA 


ting  from  the  Irish  and  Italians,  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  they  continue  to  patronize 
our  people,  and  that  in  various  lines 
Chinamen  have  the  monopoly.  Even 
when  the  "hoodlums"  of  San  Francisco 
were  fighting  the  Chinese,  the  American 
women  did  not  withdraw  their  patron- 
age, and  while  the  men  were  off  speaking 
on  the  sand-lots  against  employing  our 
people  their  wives  were  buying  veg- 
etables from  them. 

Why?  Because  their  hypocritical  hus- 
bands and  brothers  refused  to  pay  higher 
prices.  America  is  suffering  not  for 
want  of  the  cheapest  labor,  but  for  a 
laborer  like  the  Chinese,  and  until  they 
have  him  industries  will  languish.  With 
American  labor  and  American  "union" 
prices  it  is  impossible  for  the  American 
farmer  or  rancher  to  make  money.  The 
vineyardist,  the  orange,  lemon,  olive,  and 
other  fruit  raisers  can  not  compete  with 

289 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


Europe.  Labor  is  kept  up  to  such  a  high 
rate  that  the  country  is  obliged  to  put  on 
a  high  tariff  to  keep  out  foreign  compe- 
tition, and  in  so  doing  they  "cut  off  the 
nose  to  spite  the  face."  The  common 
people  are  taxed  by  the  rich.  The  sal- 
vation of  industrial  America  is  a  cheap, 
but  not  degraded,  labor.  America  desires 
house-servants  at  from  $10  to  $12  per 
month;  this  is  all  a  mere  servant  is 
worth.  She  wants  good  cooks  at  $12  or 
$15  per  month.  She  wants  fruit-pickers 
at  $10  to  $12  per  month  and  board.  She 
wants  vineyard  men,  hop-pickers,  cherry, 
peach,  apricot  and  berry  pickers,  and 
people  to  work  in  canneries  at  these 
prices.  She  wants  gardeners,  drivers, 
railroad  laborers  at  lower  rates,  and,  to 
quote  an  American,  "wants  them  'bad.'  " 
When  in  San  Francisco  I  made  a  thor- 
ough investigation  of  the  "house-servant" 
question,  and  learned  that  our  people  as 
290 


THE   CHINAMAN    IN    AMERICA 


cooks  in  private  houses  were  receiving 
from  $30  to  $50  per  month  and  board. 
A  friend  tells  me  there  is  continued  pro- 
test against  this.  Housekeepers  on  the 
Pacific  coast  are  complaining  of  the 
lack  of  "Chinese  boys,"  and  want  more 
to  come  over  so  that  prices  shall  go  down. 
The  American  wants  the  Chinaman,  but 
the  American  foreign  laborer,  the  Irish- 
man, the  Italian,  the  Mexican,  and  others 
who  dominate  American  politics,  do  not 
want  him  and  will  not  have  him.  As  a 
result  of  this  bending  to  the  alien  vote 
the  Americans  find  themselves  in  a  most 
serious  and  laughable  position  in  their 
relations  to  domestic  labor. 

I  am  not  overstating  the  fact  when  I 
say  that  the  "servant-girl"  question  is 
going  to  be  a  political  issue  in  the  future. 
The  man  may  howl  against  the  Chinese, 
but  his  wife  will  demand  that  "John"  be 
admitted  to  relieve  a  situation  that  is  be- 

291 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


coming  unbearable.  As  the  Americans 
are  all  equal,  there  are  no  servants  among 
them.  The  poor  are  as  good  as  the 
"boss,"  and  won't  be  called  servants. 
You  read  in  the  papers,  "A  lady  desires 
a  position  as  cook  in  a  small  family,  no 
children;  wages,  $35."  "A  young  lady 
wishes  a  position  to  take  care  of  chil- 
dren; salary,  $30."  "A  saleslady  wants 
position."  "A  lady  (good  scrubber)  will 
go  out  by  the  day;  $2."  When  you  meet 
these  "ladies,"  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten 
they  are  Irish  from  the  peasant  class — 
untidy,  insolent,  often  dissipated  in  the 
sense  of  drink.  When  they  apply  for  a 
position  they  put  the  employer  through 
a  course  of  questions.  Some  want  refer- 
ences from  the  last  girl,  I  am  told.  Some 
want  one  thing,  some  another,  and  all 
must  have  time  for  pleasure.  Few  have 
the  air  of  servants  or  inferiors,  but  are 
often  offensive  in  appearance  and  man- 
292 


THE    CHINAMAN    IN    AMERICA 


ners.  I  have  never  been  called  "John" 
by  the  girls  who  came  to  the  door  where 
I  called  to  pay  a  visit,  but  I  could  see  that 
they  all  wished  so  to  address  me.  In 
England,  where  classes  are  acknowledged 
and  a  servant  is  hired  as  a  servant,  and  is 
one,  an  entirely  different  state  of  affairs 
holds.  They  are  respectful,  having  been 
educated  to  be  servants,  know  that  they 
are  servants,  and  as  a  result  are  cared  for 
and  treated  as  old  retainers  and  pension- 
ers of  the  family. 

The  whole  story  of  exclusion  is  a  blot 
upon  the  American  national  honor,  and 
the  most  mystifying  part  of  it  is  that  in- 
telligent people,  the  best  people,  are  not 
a  party  to  it.  The  railroads  want  the 
Chinese  laborer.  The  great  ranches  of 
the  West  need  him ;  people  want  cooks  at 
$15  and  $20  a  month  instead  of  $30  or 
$50.  In  a  word,  America  is  suffering 
for  what  she  must  have  some  time  — 
20  293 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


cheap  labor;  yet  the  low  elements  force 
the  issue.  Congressmen  are  dominated 
by  labor  organizations  on  the  Pacific 
slope,  and  there  are  hundreds  of  Dennis 
Kearneys  to-day  where  there  was  one  a 
few  years  ago.  To  make  the  case  more  ex- 
asperating, the  Americans,  in  their  dire 
necessity,  have  imported  swarms  of  low 
Mexicans  to  take  the  place  of  the  Chi- 
nese on  the  railroads,  against  whom  there 
seems  to  be  no  Irish  hand  raised.  The 
Irish  and  Mexicans  are  of  a  piece.  I 
know  from  inquiry  everywhere  that  the 
country  at  large  would  welcome  thou- 
sands of  servants  and  field-workers  in 
vineyards  and  orchards  which  can  not  be 
made  to  pay  if  worked  by  expensive 
labor. 

The  Americans  try  to  keep  us  out,  but 
they  also  try  to  convert  those  who  get  in. 
They  have  what  they  call  Chinese  mis- 
sions,  to  which   Chinamen   go.     To  be 
294 


THE    CHINAMAN    IN    AMERICA 


converted?  No.  To  learn  the  language? 
Yes.  I  am  told  by  an  American  friend 
that  here  and  in  China  over  fifty  thou- 
sand Chinese  have  embraced  Christian- 
ity. On  the  Atlantic  coast  I  am  assured 
that  eight  hundred  Chinamen  are  Chris- 
tians, and  on  the  Pacific  slope  two  thou- 
sand have  embraced  the  faith  of  the 
Christians.  There  is  a  Christian  Chinese 
evangelist  working  among  our  people  in 
the  West,  Lum  Foon,  and  I  have  met  the 
pastor  of  a  Pacific  coast  church  who  told 
me  that  nearly  a  third  of  his  congrega- 
tion were  Chinamen,  and  he  esteemed 
them  highly.  But  the  most  conclusive 
evidence  that  the  Americans  are  succeed- 
ing in  their  proselyting  is  that  in  one  year 
a  single  denomination  received  as  a  do- 
nation from  Chinamen  $6,000.  The 
Americans  have  a  saying,  "Money  talks," 
which  is  much  like  one  of  our  own. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  clergyman  told 

295 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


me  that  it  was  discouraging  work  to 
some,  so  few  Chinamen  were  "con- 
verted" compared  to  the  great  mass  of 
them.  The  Chinese  of  California  have 
sent  $1,000  to  Canton  to  build  a  Chris- 
tian church,  and  the  Chinese  members 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Califor- 
nia sent  $3,000  in  one  year  for  the  same 
purpose.  I  am  told  that  the  Chinese 
Methodists  of  one  church  in  California 
give  yearly  from  $1,000  to  $1,800  for  the 
various  purposes  of  the  church.  The 
Christians  have  captured  some  brilliant 
men,  such  as  Sia  Sek  Ong,  who  is  a 
Methodist;  Chan  Hon  Fan,  who  ought 
to  be  in  our  army  from  what  I  hear; 
Rev.  Tong  Keet  Hing,  the  Baptist,  a 
noted  Biblical  scholar;  Rev.  Wong,  of 
the  Presbyterians;  Rev.  Ng  Poon  Chiv, 
famous  as  a  Greek  and  Hebrew  reader; 
Gee  Gam  and  Rev.  Le  Tong  Hay, 
Methodists;  and  there  are  many  more, 
296 


THE    CHINAMAN    IN    AMERICA 


suggestive  that  our  people  are  interested 
in  Christianity,  against  the  moral  teach- 
ings of  which  no  one  could  seriously 
object. 

I  dined  some  time  ago  with  a  mer- 
chants' club,  and  was  much  pleased  at 
the  eulogy  I  heard  on  the  Chinese.  A 
merchant  said,  "My  firm  deals  largely 
with  the  Chinese  and  Japanese.  When 
I  make  a  trade  with  the  Japanese  I  tie 
them  up  with  a  written  contract,  but  I 
have  always  found  that  the  word  of  a 
Chinese  merchant  was  sufficient."  This 
I  found  to  be  the  universal  feeling,  and 
yet  Americans  exclude  us  at  the  bidding 
of  "hoodlums,"  a  term  applied  to  the 
lowest  class  of  young  men  on  the  Pacific 
coast.  In  the  East  he  is  a  "tough"  or 
"rough"  or  "rowdy."  "Tough  nut"  and 
"hard  nut"  are  also  applied  to  such  peo- 
ple, the  Americans  having  numbers  of 

terms  like  these,  which  may  be  called 

297 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


"nicknames,"  or  false  names.  Thus  a 
man  who  is  noted  for  his  dress  is  a 
"swell,"  a  "dude,"  or  a  "sport." 

The  United  States  Government  does 
not  allow  the  Chinese  to  vote,  yet  tens 
of  thousands  of  poor  Americans,  "white 
trash"  in  the  South,  ignorant  negroes, 
low  Irish  and  Italians  who  can  not  speak 
the  tongue,  are  welcome  and  courted  by 
both  parties.  It  is  difficult  for  me  to 
overlook  this  insult  on  the  part  of  Amer- 
ica. There  is  a  large  settlement  of  Chi- 
nese in  New  York,  but  they  are  as  iso- 
lated as  if  they  were  in  China.  In  San 
Francisco  there  is  the  largest  settlement, 
and  many  fine  merchants  live  there,  and 
also  in  Los  Angeles. 

In  the  latter  city  -  -  told  me  that  the 
best  of  feeling  existed  between  the  Chi- 
nese and  Americans;  and  at  the  Amer- 
ican Festival  of  the  Rose  the  Chinese 
joined  in  the  procession.  The  dragon 
298 


THE    CHINAMAN    IN    AMERICA 


was  brought  out,  and  all  the  Chinese 
merchants  appeared;  but  these  gentlemen 
are  never  consulted  by  the  Americans, 
never  allowed  to  vote  or  take  any  inter- 
est in  the  growth  of  the  city,  and in- 
formed me  that  none  of  them  had  ever 
been  asked  to  join  a  board  of  trade.  It  is 
the  same  everywhere;  the  only  advances 
the  Americans  make  is  to  try  and  "con- 
vert" us  to  their  various  religious  denom- 
inations! While  the  Chinese  are  not  al- 
lowed to  vote  or  to  have  any  part  in  the 
affairs  of  government,  they  are  taxed. 
"Taxation  without  representation"  was 
the  cause  of  the  war  of  the  American 
Revolution,  but  that  is  another  matteni 
Yet  our  people  have  ways  of  influ- 
encing the  whites  with  the  "dollar,"  for 
which  some  officials  will  do  anything, 
and,  I  regret  to  say,  all  Chinamen  are 
not  above  bribing  Americans.  I  have 
heard  that  the  Chinese  of  San  Francisco 

299 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


for  years  were  blackmailed  by  Ameri- 
cans, and  obliged  to  raise  money  to  fight 
bills  in  the  Legislature.  In  1892  the 
Six  Companies  raised  $200,000  to  defeat 
the  "Geary  Bill."  The  Chinese  mer- 
chants have  some  influence.  Out  of  the 
1 10,000  Chinamen  in  America  hardly  ten 
per  cent  obeyed  the  iniquitous  law  and 
registered.  The  Chinese  societies  con- 
tracted to  defend  all  who  refused  to 
register. 

Our  people  have  a  strong  and  influen- 
tial membership  in  the  Sam  Yup,  Hop 
Wo,  Yan  Wo,  Kong  Chow,  Ning  Ye- 
ong,  and  Yeong  Wo  companies.  These 
societies  practically  control  everything 
in  America  relating  to  the  Chinese,  and 
they  retain  American  lawyers  to  fight 
their  battles.  I  have  met  many  of  the 
officers  of  these  companies,  and  China 
has  produced  no  more  brilliant  minds 
than  some,  and,  sub  rosa,  they  have  been 
300 


THE    CHINAMAN    IN    AMERICA 


pitted  against  the  Americans  on  more 
than  one  occasion  and  have  outwitted 
them.  Among  these  men  are  Yee  Ha 
Chung,  Chang  Wah  Kwan,  Chun  Ti 
Chu,  Chu  Shee  Sum,  Lee  Cheang  Chun, 
and  others.  Many  of  these  men  have 
been  presidents  of  the  Six  Companies  in 
San  Francisco,  and  rank  in  intelligence 
with  the  most  brilliant  American  states- 
men. I  regret  to  see  them  in  America. 

Chun  Ti  Chu  especially,  at  one  time 
president  of  the  Sam  Yuz,  should  be  in 
China.  I  met  this  brilliant  man  some 
years  ago  in  San  Francisco.  After  din- 
ner he  took  me  to  a  place  and  showed 
me  a  placard  which  was  a  reward  of  $300 
for  his  head.  He  had  obtained  the 
enmity  of  criminal  Chinamen  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  but  when  I  last  heard  of 
him  he  was  still  alive.  There  are  many 
criminals  here  who  do  not  dare  to  return 
to  China,  who  left  their  country  for  their 

301 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


country's  good.  These  are  the  cause  of 
much  trouble  here,  and  bring  discredit 
upon  the  better  class  of  our  people.  Our 
people  in  America  are  loyal  to  the  Gov- 
ernment. It  was  interesting  to  see  at  one 
time  a  proclamation  from  the  Emperor 
brought  over  by  Chew  Shu  Sum  and 
posted  in  the  streets  of  an  American  city: 
"By  order  of  his  Imperial  Majesty,  the 
Emperor  of  China."  The  President,  the 
mayor  of  San  Francisco,  was  not  thought 
of;  China  was  revered,  and  is  to-day 
holding  her  government  over  the  Chi- 
nese in  every  American  city  where  they 
have  a  stronghold.  So  much  for  the 
loyalty  of  our  people. 


302 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  AMERICANS 

THOMAS  J.  GEARY,  the  former  con- 
gressman, is  an  avowed  enemy  of  the 
Chinese  and  the  author  of  the  famous 
Geary  bill,  but  I  condone  all  he  has  said 
against  us  for  one  profound  utterance 
made  in  a  published  address  or  article, 
in  which  he  said:  "As  to  the  missionaries 
(in  China),  it  wouldn't  be  a  national  loss 
if  they  were  required  to  return  home.  If 
the  American  missionary  would  only 
look  about  him  in  the  large  cities  of  the 
Union  he  would  find  enough  of  misery, 
enough  of  suffering,  enough  people  fall- 
ing away  from  the  Christian  churches, 
enough  of  darkness,  enough  of  vice  in  all 
its  conditions  and  all  its  grades,  to  fur- 

303 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


nish  him  work  for  years  to  come."  This 
is  a  sentiment  Americans  may  well  think 
of;  but  there  are  "none  so  blind  as  those 
who  will  not  see."  There  will  always  be 
women  and  men  willing  to  spend  their 
time  in  picturesque  China  at  the  expense 
of  foreign  missions.  China  has  never  at- 
tempted to  convert  the  Americans  to  her 
religion,  believing  she  has  all  she  can  do 
to  keep  her  people  within  bounds  at 
home. 

In  my  search  for  information  in  Amer- 
ica I  have  had  some  singular  experiences. 
I  have  made  an  examination  of  the  many 
religions  of  the  Americans,  and  they  have 
been  remarkably  prolific  in  this  respect. 
While  we  are  satisfied  with  Taoism, 
Buddhism,  but  mostly  with  Confucian- 
ism, I  have  observed  the  following  sects 
in  America:  Baptists  of  two  kinds,  Con- 
gregationalists,  Methodists,  Quakers  of 
three  kinds,  Catholics,  Unitarians,  Uni- 
304 


THE   RELIGIONS   OF   THE    AMERICANS 

versalists,  Presbyterians,  Swedenbor- 
gians,  Spiritualists,  Christian  Scientists 
(healers),  Episcopalians  (high  and  low), 
Jews,  Seventh-Day  Adventists,  and 
many  more.  Nearly  all  are  Christians, 
as  we  are  nearly  all  Confucians.  Uni- 
tarians, Universalists,  Jews,  and  several 
others  believe  in  the  moral  teachings  of 
Christ,  but  hold  that  he  was  not  of  divine 
origin.  America  was  first  settled  to  sup- 
ply room  for  religious  liberty,  which  per- 
haps explains  the  remarkable  number  of 
religions.  They  are  constantly  increas- 
ing. Nearly  all  of  these  denominations 
hold  that  their  own  belief  is  the  right 
one.  Much  proselyting  is  going  on 
among  them,  with  which  one  would  take 
no  exception  if  tj^ere  was  no  denouncing 
of  one  another.'  Our  religion,  founded 
in  the  faith  of  Confucius,  seems  satisfy- 
ing to  us.  Some  of  us  believe  that  at 
least  we  are  not  savages^ 

'  305 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


Some  American  friends  once  invited 
me  to  go  to  a  negro  church  in  Washing- 
ton. Upon  arriving  we  were  given  a 
seat  well  down  in  front.  The  pastor  was 
a  "visiting  evangelist,"  and  in  a  short 
time  had  these  excitable  and  ignorant 
people  in  a  frenzy,  several  being  carried 
out  of  the  church  in  a  semicataleptic 
condition.  Suddenly  the  minister  began 
to  pray  for  the  strangers,  and  especially 
"for  the  heathen  in  our  midst,"  for  the 
unsaved  from  pagan  lands,  that  they 
might  be  saved ;  and  I  could  not  but  won- 
der at  the  conceit  and  ignorance  that 
would  ask  a  believer  in  the  splendid 
philosophy  of  Confucius  to- throw  it  aside 
for  this  African  religion. ^  This  idea  that 
a  Chinaman  is  a  "pagan"  and  idolater  is 
found  everywhere  in  America,  and  every 
attempt  is  made  to  "save"  hin/. 

I  very  much  fear  that  many  of  our 
countrymen  go  to  the  American  missions 
306 


THE    RELIGIONS   OF   THE    AMERICANS 

and  Sunday-schools  merely  to  learn  the 
language  and  enjoy  the  social  life  of 
those  who  are  interested  in  this  special 
work.  I  was  told  by  a  well-to-do  China- 
man that  he  knew  Chinamen  who  were 
both  Catholic  and  Protestant,  and  who 
attended  all  the  Chinese  missions  with- 
out reference  to  sect.  They  were  Metho- 
dist when  at  the  Methodist  mission, 
Catholic  when  at  mass,  and  when  they 
returned  to  their  home  slipped  back  into 
Confucianism.  Let  us  hope  this  is  not 
universal,  though  I  venture  the  belief 
that  the  witty  Americans  would  see  the 
humor  of  it. 

I  was  told  by  a  prominent  patron  of 
the  Woman's  Christian  Union  that  she 
felt  very  sorry  I  did  not  have  the  conso- 
lation of  religion,  coming  as  I  did  from 
a  heathen  land.  Some  "heathens"  might 
have  been  insulted,  but  I  had  come  to 
know  the  Americans  and  was  aware  that 

307 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


she  really  felt  a  kindly  interest  in  me.  I 
replied  that  we  could  find  some  consola- 
tion in  the  sayings  of  our  religious  teach- 
ers, as  the  great  guide  of  our  life  is, 
"What  you  do  not  like  when  done  to 
yourself  do  not  do  to  others." 

"Why,"  said  the  lady,  "that  is  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  our  'Golden  Rule.'  " 

"Pardon  me,"  I  answered,  "this  is  the 
golden  rule  of  Confucius,  written  four 
hundred  years  or  so  before  Christ  was 
born." 

"I  think  you  must  be  mistaken,"  she 
continued;  "this  is  a  fundamental  pillar 
of  the  Christian  belief." 

"True,"  I  retorted;  "but  none  the 
less  Christians  obtained  it  from  Con- 
fucius." 

She  did  not  believe  me,  and  we  re- 
ferred the  question  to  Bishop  -  — ,  who 
sat  near  us.  Much  to  her  confusion  he 
agreed  with  me,  and  then  quoted  the 
308 


THE    RELIGIONS   OF   THE    AMERICANS 

well-known  lines  of  one  of  our  religious 
writers  who  lived  twelve  hundred  years 
before  Christ:  "The  great  God  has  con- 
ferred on  the  people  a  moral  sense,  com- 
pliance with  which  would  show  their 
nature  inevitably  right,"  and  remarked 
that  it  was  a  splendid  sentiment. 

"Then  you  believe  in  a  God,"  said  the 
lady,  turning  to  me. 

"I  trust  so,"  was  my  answer. 

Now  this  lady,  who  believed  me  to  be 
a  "pagan"  and  unsaved,  was  a  product  of 
the  American  school  system,  yet  she  had 
never  read  a  line  of  Confucius,  having 
been  "brought  up"  to  consider  him  an 
infidel  writer. 

I  have  seen  many  of  the  great  Western 
nations  and  observed  their  religions.  My 
conclusion  is  that  none  make  so  general 
and  united  an  attempt  to  be  what  they 
consider  "good  and  moral"  as  the  Amer- 
icans; but  the  Americans  scatter  their 
21  309 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


efforts  like  shot  fired  from  a  gun,  and  the 
result  is  a  multiplicity  of  religious  be- 
liefs beyond  belief.  I  do  not  forget  that 
America  was  settled  to  afford  an  asylum 
for  religious  belief,  where  men  could 
work  out  their  salvation  in  peace.  If 
Americans  would  grant  us  the  same  priv- 
ilege and  not  send  missionaries  to  fight 
over  us,  all  would  be  well.  No  one  can 
dispute  the  fact  that  the  Americans  are 
in  earnest;  the  greater  number  believe 
they  are  right,  and  that  they  possess  true 
zeal  all  China  knows. 
r"The  impression  the  convert  in  China 
obtains  is  that  the  United  States  is  a  sort 
of  paradise,  where  Christians  live  in 
peace  and  happiness,  loving  one  another, 
doing  good  to  those  who  ill-treat  them, 
turning  the  cheek  to  those  who  strike 
them,  etc.;  but  the  Chinaman  soon  finds 
after  landing  in  America  that  this  is 
often  "conspicuous  by  its  absence." 
310 


THE    RELIGIONS   OF   THE    AMERICANS 

These  ideas  are  preached,  and  doubtless 
thousands  follow  them  or  attempt  to  do 
so,  but  that  they  are  cojnmon  practises 
of  the  people  is  not  true.J  There  is  great 
need  of  Christian  missions  in  America  as 
well  as  in  China.  I  told  a  clergyman  that 
our  people  believed  the  Christian  relig- 
ion was  very  good  for  the  Americans, 
and  we  had  no  fault  to  find  with  it,  nor 
had  we  the  temerity  to  insinuate  that  our 
own  was  superior. 

A  Roman  Catholic  young  lady  whom 
I  met  spoke  to  me  about  burning  our 
prayers,  our  joss-houses,  and  our  dragon, 
which  she  had  seen  carried  about  the 
streets  of  San  Francisco.  "Pure  sym- 
bolism," I  answered,  and  then  told  her 
of  the  Christian  dragon  in  the  Divine 
Key  of  the  Revelation  of  Jesus  Christ  as 
Given  to  John,  by  a  Christian  writer, 
William  Eugene  Brown.  This  dragon 
had  nine  heads,  while  ours  has  only  one. 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


I  believe  I  had  the  best  of  the  argument 
so  far  as  heads  went.  This  young  woman, 
a  graduate  of  a  large  college,  wore  an 
amulet,  which  she  believes  protects  her 
from  accident.  She  possessed  a  bottle  of 
water  from  a  miraculous  spring  in  Can- 
ada, which  she  said  would  cure  any  dis- 
ease, and  she  told  me  that  one  of  the 
Catholic  churches  there,  Ste.  Anne  de 
Beaupre,  had  a  small  piece  of  the  wrist- 
bone  of  the  mother  of  the  Virgin,  which 
would  heal  and  had  healed  thousands. 
She  had  a  picture  of  the  church,  showing 
piles  of  crutches  thrown  aside  by  cured 
and  grateful  patients.  Can  China  pro- 
duce such  credulity?  I  think  not. 

All  nations  may  be  wrong  in  their  re- 
ligious beliefs,  but  certainly  "pagan 
China"  is  outdone  in  religious  extrava- 
ganza by  America  or  any  European 
state.  Our  joss-houses  and  our  feasts  are 
nothing  to  the  splendors  of  American 
312 


THE    RELIGIONS   OF   THE    AMERICANS 

churches.  An  American  girl  laughed  at 
the  bearded  figures  in  a  San  Francisco 
joss-house,  but  looked  solemn  when  I  re- 
ferred to  the  saints  in  a,  Catholic  cathe- 
dral in  the  same  city.  (jf  I  were  "fancy 
free"  I  should  like  to  lecture  in  America 
on  the  inconsistencies  of  the  Caucasian. 
They  really  challenge  our  own.y  Instead 
of  having  one  splendid  churcn  and  de- 
voting themselves  to  the  real  ethics  of 
Christianity,  these  Christians  have  di- 
vided irrevocably,  and  so  lost  strength 
and  force.  They  are  in  a  sense  turned 
against  themselves,  and  their  religious 
colleges  are  graduating  men  to  perpet- 
uate the  differences.  No  more  splendid 
religion  than  that  expounded  by  Christ 
could  be  imagined  if  they  would  join 
hands  and,  like  the  Confucians,  devote 
their  attention  not  to  rites  and  theolog- 
ical differences  but  to  the  daily  conduct 
of  men. 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


The  Americans  have  a  saying,  "Take 
care  of  the  pennies  and  the  dollars  will 
care  for  themselves."  We  believe  that 
in  taking  care  of  the  morals  of  the  in- 
dividual the  nation  will  take  care  of 
itself.^  I  took  the  liberty  of  commending 
this  Confucian  doctrine  to  a  Methodist 
brother,  but  he  had  never  been  allowed 
to  read  the  books  of  Confucius.  They  are 
classed  with  those  of  Mohammed,  Vol- 
taire, and  others.  So  what  can  one  do 
with  such  people,  who  have  the  conceit  oL 
the  ages  and  the  ignorance  of  all  time?) 
Their  great  scholars  see  their  idiosyn- 
crasies, and  I  can  not  begin  to  describe 
them.  One  sect  believes  that  no  one  can 
be  saved  unless  immersed  in  water; 
others  believe  in  sprinkling.  Others,  as 
the  Quakers,  denounce  all  this  as  mum- 
mery. One  sect,  the  Shakers,  will  have 
no  marriages.  Another  believes  in  hav- 
ing as  many  wives  as  they  can  support — 
3H 


THE    RELIGIONS   OF   THE    AMERICANS 

the  Mormons.  The  Jews  and  Quakers 
oblige  members  to  marry  in  the  society; 
in  the  latter  instance  the  society  is  dying 
out,  and  the  former  from  constant  inter- 
marriage has  resulted  in  conspicuous  and 
marked  facial  peculiarities.  These  dif- 
ferent sects,  instead  of  loving,  despise 
one  another.  Episcopalians  look  down 
upon  the  Methodists,  and  the  latter  de- 
nounce the  former  because  the  priests 
sometimes  smoke  and  drink.  The  Uni- 
tarians are  not  regarded  well  by  the 
others,  yet  nearly  all  the  other  bodies 
contain  Unitarians,  who  for  business 
and  other  reasons  do  not  acknowledge 
the  fact.  A  certain  clergyman  would 
not  admit  a  Catholic  priest  to  his  plat- 
form. All  combine  against  the  poor 
Jew. 

So  strong  is  the  feeling  against  this 
people  among  the  best  of  American  cit- 
izens that  they  are  almost  completely 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


ostracised,  at  least  socially.  In  all  the 
years  spent  in  America  I  do  not  recall 
meeting  a  Jew  at  dinner  in  Washington, 
New  York,  or  Newport.  They  are  dis- 
liked, and  as  a  rule  associate  entirely 
with  themselves,  having  their  own 
churches,  clubs,  etc.  Yet  they  in  large 
degree  control  the  finances  of  America. 
They  have  almost  complete  control  of 
the  textile-fabric  business,  clothing,  and 
many  other  trades.  Why  the  American 
Christians  dislike  the  American  Jews  is 
difficult  to  understand,  but  the  invariable 
reply  to  this  question  is  that  their  man- 
ners are  so  offensive  that  Christians  will 
not  associate  with  them.  I  doubt  if  in 
any  of  the  first  circles  of  any  city  you 
would  meet  a  Jew.  In  the  fashionable 
circles  of  New  York  I  heard  that  it 
would  be  "easier  for  a  camel  to  pass 
through  the  eye  of  a  needle"  than  for  a 
Jew  to  enter  these  circles.  Many  hotels 


THE    RELIGIONS   OF   THE   AMERICANS 

will  not  receive  them.  In  fact,  the  ban 
is  on  the  Jew  as  completely  in  America 
as  in  Russia.  I  was  strongly  tempted  to 
ask  if  this  was  the  brotherly  love  I  heard 
so  much  about,  but  refrained.  I  heard 
the  following  story  at  a  dinner:  A  Chi- 
nese laundryman  received  a  call  from  a 
Jew,  who  brought  with  him  his  soiled 
clothing.  The  Chinaman,  glancing  at 
the  Jew,  refused  to  take  the  package. 
"But  why?"  asked  the  Jew;  "here's  the 
money  in  advance."  "No  washee,"  said 
the  Christian  Chinaman;  "you  killed 
Melican  man's  Joss,"  meaning  that  the 
Jews  crucified  the  Christ. 

The  more  you  delve  into  the  religions 
of  the  Americans  the  more  anomalies 
you  find.  I  asked  a  New  York  lady  at 

Newport  if  she  had  ever  met  Miss , 

a  prominent  Chinese  missionary.  She 
had  never  heard  of  her,  and  considered 
most  missionaries  very  ordinary  persons. 


AS    A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


This  same  lady,  when  some  one  spoke 
about  laxity  of  morals,  replied,  "It  is  not 
morals  but  manners  that  we  need";  and  I 
can  assure  you  that  this  high-church  lady, 
a  model  of  propriety,  judged  her  men  ac- 
quaintances by  that  standard.  If  their 
manners  were  correct,  she  apparently  did 
not  care  what  moral  lapses  they  commit- 
ted when  out  of  her  presence.  Briefly,  I 
looked  in  vain  for  the  religion  in  every- 
day life  preached  by  the  missionary. 
Doubtless  many  possess  it,  but  the  meek 
and  humble  follower  of  the  head  of  the 
Christian  Church,  the  American  who 
turned  his  cheek  for  another  blow,  the 
one  who  loved  his  enemies,  or  the  one 
who  was  anxious  to  do  unto  others  as 
he  would  have  them  do  unto  him,  all 
these,  whom  I  expected  to  see  every- 
where, were  not  found,  at  least  in  any 
numbers. 

In  visiting  a  certain  village  I  dined 


THE    RELIGIONS   OF    THE    AMERICANS 

with  several  clergymen.  One  told  me  he 
was  the  Catholic  priest,  and  invited  me 
to  visit  his  chapel.  Not  long  after  I  met 
another  clergyman.  I  do  not  recall  his 
denomination,  but  his  work  he  told  me 
was  undoing  that  of  the  Catholic  priest. 
The  latter  converted  the  people  to  Cathol- 
icism, while  the  former  tried  to  reclaim 
them  from  Catholicism.  I  heard  much 
about  our  joss-houses,  but  they  fade  into 
insignificance  when  compared  with  the 
splendid  religious  palaces  of  the  Amer- 
icans, and  particularly  those  of  the  Cath- 
olics and  Episcopalians.  Their  religious 
customs  are  beyond  belief.  As  an  illus- 
tration, their  religion  teaches  them  that 
the  dead,  if  they  have  led  a  good  life, 
go  at  once  to  heaven,  though  the  Cath- 
olics believe  in  a  purgatory,  a  half-way 
house,  out  of  which  the  dead  can  be 
bought  by  the  payment  of  money. 

Now    the    simple    Chinaman    would 


AS   A    CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


naturally  believe  that  the  relatives  would 
be  pleased  at  the  death  of  a  friend  who 
was  immediately  transported  to  para- 
dise and  freed  from  the  worries  of  life, 
but  not  at  all ;  at  the  death  of  a  relative 
the  friends  are  plunged  into  such  grief 
that  they  have  been  known  to  hire  pro- 
fessional mourners,  and  instead  of  put- 
ting on  clothes  indicative  of  joy  and 
thanksgiving  array  themselves  in  somber 
black,  the  token  of  woe,  and  wear  it  for 
years.  Everything  is  black,  and  the  more 
fashionable  the  family  the  deeper  the 
black.  The  deepest  crape  is  worn  by  the 
women.  Writing-paper  is  inscribed  with 
a  deep  band,  also  visiting  cards.  Women 
use  jet  as  jewelry,  and  white  pearls  are 
replaced  by  black  ones.  Even  servants 
are  garbed  in  mourning  for  the  departed, 
who,  they  believe,  have  gone  to  the  most 
beautiful  paradise  possible  to  conceive. 
Contemplating  all  these  inconsistencies 
320 


THE   RELIGIONS   OF   THE    AMERICANS 

one  is  amazed,  and  the  amazement  is 
ever  increasing  as  one  delves  deeper  into 
the  ways  of  the  inconsistent  American. 

The  credulity  of  the  American  is 
nowhere  more  singularly  shown  than  in 
his  susceptibility  to  religion.  At  a  din- 
ner given  by  the  -  -  of  -  -  in  Wash- 
ington, conversation  turned  on  religion, 

and  Senator ,  a  very  clever  man,  told 

me  in  a  burst  of  confidence,  "Our  people 
are  easily  led;  it  merely  requires  a  leader, 
a  bright,  audacious  man,  with  plenty  of 
'cheek,'  to  create  a  following."  There 
are  hundreds  of  examples  of  this  state- 
ment. No  matter  how  idiotic  the  relig- 
ion or  philosophy  may  be,  a  following 
can  be  established  among  Americans.  A 
man  of  the  name  of  Dowie,  "ignorant, 
impertinent,  but  with  a  superabundance 
of  cheek"  (I  quote  an  American  jour- 
nal), announced  himself  as  the  prophet 
Elijah,  and  obtained  a  following  of 

321 


AS  A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


thousands,  built  a  large  city,  and  lives 
upon  the  credulity  of  the  public. 

Three  different  "healers"  have  ap- 
peared within  a  decade  in  America, 
each  by  inference  claiming  to  be  the 
Christ  and  imitating  his  wanderings  and 
healing  methods.  All,  even  the  last, 
grossest,  and  most  impudent  impostor, 
who  advertised  himself  in  the  daily  press, 
the  picture  showing  him  posing  after  one 
of  the  well-known  pictures  of  Christ,  had 
many  followers.  I  hoped  to  hear  that 
this  fellow  had  been  "tarred  and  feath- 
ered," a  happy  American  remedy  for 
gross  things.  This  fellow,  as  the  Amer- 
icans say,  "went  beyond  the  limit."  I 
asked  the  senator  how  he  accounted  for 
Americans,  well  educated  as  they  are, 
taking  up  these  strange  impostors. 
"Well,"  he  replied,  puffing  on  a  big 
cigar,  "between  you  and  me  and  the 
lamp-post  it's  on  account  of  the  kind  of 
322 


THE    RELIGIONS   OF   THE   AMERICANS 

schooling  they  get.  I  didn't  get  much 
myself — I'm  an  old-timer;  but  I  accu- 
mulated a  lot  of  'horse  sense,'  that  has 
served  me  so  well  that  I  never  have  my 
leg  pulled,  and  I  notice  that  all  these 
'suckers'  are  graduates  from  something; 
but  don't  take  this  as  gospel,  as  I'm 
always  getting  up  minority  reports." 

The  religion  of  the  Americans,  as 
diffuse  as  it  is,  is  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able factors  you  meet  in  the  country. 
Despite  its  peculiar  phases  you  can  not 
fail  to  appreciate  a  people  who  make 
such  stupendous  attempts  to  crush  out 
evil  and  raise  the  morals  of  the  masses. 
We  may  differ  from  them.  \We  may  re- 
sent their  assumption  that  we  are  pagans 
and  heathens,  but  this  colossal  series  of 
movements,  under  the  banner  of  the 
Cross,  is  one  of  the  marvels  of  the  worldJ 
Surely  it  isyrfisinterested.  It  comes  from 
the  heart.  (  I  wish  the  Americans  knew 

323 


AS   A   CHINAMAN    SAW    US 


more  of  Confucius  and  his  code  of 
morals;  they  would  then  see  that  we  are 
not  so  "pagan"  as  they  supposed 


THE  END 


324 


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